07:34 PM CST on Friday, December 23, 2005

From 11 News Staff Reports

Dan Lauck's report
Onboard video from Metro

KHOU-TV

The impact knocked the middle of three rail cars slightly off the track.

It was one of the worst Metro rail accidents in Houston so far.

A train crashed into a pickup truck then jumped the track.

Eight people were hurt.

The train's onboard cameras captured the wreck as it happened and proves just who was at fault.

The collision was a pretty good punch. In fact, a pickup truck smacked the train so hard it left the cars zigzagged across the tracks and sent passengers flying.

Eight people, including the driver of the truck, were strapped to body boards and taken to hospitals -- all with minor injuries.

At 12:32 p.m. the driver of the truck was traveling eastbound on Elgin when he crashed into the train on Main.

"The train was northbound. Our driver had a clear bar to go," said Metro spokesperson Racquel Roberts. "He was in the intersection when the truck entered and they collided."

For train drivers, or engineers, a clear, vertical bar is the same as a green light.

When it turns horizontal, it's red.

Somebody had a red light.

One witness who said he was standing on a crosswalk claims the train engineer had the red light.

He didn't want to be identified but drew a diagram.

"The pick up truck had the green light," the witness said.

Rudolpho Castro's view was much closer.

"The truck don't respect the red light," he said.

Sure enough, when Metro released video shot from the train, it showed the engineer had the vertical bar to go.

The silver lining from Metro's unfortunate history of collisions was evident -- the train pulled itself back onto the tracks and the cleanup crew had the tracks clear and open 55 minutes later -- before they could even stop talking about it.

KHOU-TV

The driver of the truck was traveling eastbound on Elgin when he crashed into the northbound train on Main.

Metro police were investigating the incident.