The Metrolink train derailed after colliding with a truck in Oxnard early Tuesday. The truck’s driver was arrested on suspicion of hit-and-run, but prosecutors said they will wait for the investigation to be completed before deciding on criminal charges.
Firefighters and other officials walk near cars from a Metrolink passenger train that derailed Tuesday.
Mark J. Terrill / AP
Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez, 54, was arrested Tuesday more than a mile away from the crash in Oxnard, where the passenger train was derailed in a fiery crash and more than two dozen people were hospitalized.
A few hours before Sanchez-Ramirez was scheduled to appear in court Thursday, Ventura County District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced that he would wait until the investigation in completed before deciding on filing charges.
The investigation, he added, was "complex and involves numerous local and federal agencies including the District Attorney's Office, Oxnard Police Department and the National Traffic Safety Board."
Sanchez-Ramirez, who was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run, was previously convicted of driving under the influence in Arizona.
"While charges will not be filed at this time, the arrest of Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez by the Oxnard Police Department was clearly appropriate and lawful," Totten said in the statement.
As of Thursday afternoon, he was being held at in Ventura County jail in lieu of $150,000 bail.
Fifty people were injured in the Southern California crash Tuesday.
An aerial view shows the scene of a double-decker Metrolink train derailment in Oxnard, California.
Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
Of those involved in the derailment — which occurred shortly after 5:40 a.m. in Oxnard — 28 were hospitalized, officials said. The driver of the produce truck, which burst into flames, was uninjured.
Johnny Corona / AP
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