January 27, 2005

• This Just In:

  Dear Diary,

  Yesterday morning was one of those surreal times when everyone seemed to be wondering the same things. I got into work at about 5:45 as usual. At about 6:00 a.m., in the city of Glendale, about 30 miles north of Long Beach, a sad excuse for a human being decided to commit suicide by parking his Jeep Cherokee on the tracks of the Metrolink Commuter train. The Metrolink is one of those large double deck passenger trains which we’ve only had here in the Los Angeles area for a few years, in order to alleviate the overcrowding on our overloaded freeway system. A lot of people use rapid transit now, and the numbers have been increasing on the commuter lines. These trains travel very fast, and are a wonder to behold as they plummet headlong through the transit corridors, some of which are through the middle of the freeways.

  In the area where this misbegoten soul decided to end it all for himself, the trains go through the back of a business section, and there are crossings for them same as for the Metro Rail Commuter trains in Long Beach. The trains in Long Beach travel a lot slower, and although there have been many collisions between wayward autos and Metro Trains over the years, the trains usually “push” the vehicles off the tracks.

  People were coming in to work discussing what they had heard on the news. At that time, minutes after a fully loaded morning MetroLink had hit the Jeep across the tracks, and then accordianed and hit another train going the opposite direction, which in a terrible domino effect hit a freight train sitting on a sideline, nobody knew what the cause was, or what the actual loss of life would be. The wreck was so severe nobody had seen the twisted remains of the Cherokee yet. Moments after trying to kill himself by parking the vehicle across the tracks, the suicidal young man had “changed his mind” but couldn’t get the vehicle off the tracks, so he left it, and then stood by and watched the carnage that followed, which killed 11 people, and injured nearly 200. We didn’t know about this until much later. It turns out the crash is the deadliest since 11 people were killed in Illinois in 1999 when an Amtrak train hit a truck, and the story was even featured on the national news last night. We don’t consider our Metrolinks as “trains” however, like the Amtrak, which runs down to San Diego, but as commuter trains, offshoots of the bus lines and the subway. The victims, and they are victims, were people going to work in the morning. This news struck me before I even had time to get over the fact that yesterday had the most American casualties in the Iraq war because of a helicopter crash.

  The insane suicidal man, whose name is Juan Alvarez, 25, was arrested, and is being held, and will most probably be charged with murder. I hope they don’t put him to death (We have a death penalty in California, and there was an execution just last week). I hope he rots in prison. Death is what he wanted for himself, and in his pursuit of self extermination, he killed 11 people, injured a couple hundred, and caused a crime scene that looked apocalyptic. I couldn’t even stomach watching the news last night seeing the helicopter footage.

  Why are people so thoughtless when it comes to their decisions? Why does there seem to be more craziness with each passing year? Why can’t humanity enjoy his stay on Planet Earth, stop fighting each other and himself, and learn to live together? These are questions, and I certainly don’t have answers. I’m trying myself to survive. I’m manic-depressive, and can reach impossible highs, followed by death craving lows, but I’d never actually commit suicide, and I certainly wouldn’t endanger others.

  Yesterday was a bit surreal for all of us at work. Sort of like on 9/11. But completely different. The attacks on the World Trade Center were a planned “act of war”. The tidal waves in the Indian Ocean were geologic happenings, normal to the Earth. The Metrolink crash in Glendale yesterday is an unforgivable crime, committed by one crazy individual. We sometimes seem to have cornered the market on this kind of a**hole here in L.A. but they’re all over. Every time some weirdo does something horrendous, the interviews with their neighbors turn up recollecitons like “He was always such a nice guy.”

  Today can only be a better day. (I hope) I drive to work, and each trip is an adventure itself, with the amount of road rage crazed individuals who cut me off and cause me no end of nervousness on my daily 30 mile roundtrip to work, where I should be headed right about now.

   

  • 8:37 am
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