Train wreck kills 10, wounds 200

GLENDALE, Calif. -- A commuter train smashed into an SUV left on the tracks by a suicidal man early Wednesday, sending the train careening off the rails in a wreck that killed 10 people and injured about 200, authorities said. Dozens of the injured were in critical condition.\nAfter the Metrolink train hit the SUV, it derailed and crashed with another train going in the opposite direction. Both trains landed on their sides, sending passengers tumbling down the aisles, authorities said.\nThe SUV driver changed his mind about suicide and left the vehicle before it was hit, Police Chief Randy Adams said. The man will be charged with homicide, he said.\n"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual that was suicidal," Adams told a news conference at the scene of mangled railcars in the suburb north of downtown Los Angeles. "I think his intent at that time was to take his own life but changed his mind prior to the train actually striking this vehicle."\nThe man, identified as Juan Manuel Alvarez, 26, of Compton, stood by as the train hit the SUV, Adams said. Alvarez had also tried to slash his wrists and stabbed himself, authorities said.\n"There is no terrorism or terrorist act involved," Adams said.\nFirefighters picked through twisted wreckage and carried injured passengers from the trains to a triage center set up in a nearby parking lot.\nOne commuter train was headed from Los Angeles' Union Station to downtown Burbank, and the other was bound for Union Station from Moorpark, Metrolink officials said. The accident happened a little after 6 a.m.\n"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," said passenger Diane Brady, 56, of Simi Valley. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half, it seemed. It was a complete nightmare."\nIn a light rain, firefighters climbed ladders into windows of a battered train tipped onto its side.\nNearly 300 firefighters were at the scene and 35 ambulances were taking injured passengers to hospitals, officials said.\nDazed passengers, some limping, gathered at tables in a nearby store, while the injured sprawled on color-coded mats in the parking lot: red for those with severe injuries, green for those less seriously harmed.\nOne of the dead passengers was identified as Deputy James Tutino, a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles County sheriff's department.\nAs the cars tumbled off the tracks, one of the Metrolink trains struck a parked Union Pacific locomotive, tipping it onto its side, said Kathryn Blackwell, a railroad spokeswoman in Omaha, Neb.