Metrolink covered for Glendale crash

GLENDALE, Calif.-Metrolink, which operates the commuter trains involved in a deadly collision last week in Southern California, is insured for losses stemming from the accident.

A man was arrested Wednesday after leaving his vehicle parked on the tracks in Glendale, Calif., where a Metrolink passenger train hit it, sideswiped another commuter train and derailed. At least 11 people died and more than a hundred were injured in the collision, which occurred at around 6 a.m.

Police said the man apparently parked in the train's path intending to commit suicide, then changed his mind and stood by and watched as the train slammed into his car and left the tracks.

Metrolink has $185 million in liability insurance above a $4 million self-insured retention, according to Steve Wylie, assistant executive officer for the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which operates the commuter railroad. Much of the coverage above the retention is written by syndicates at Lloyd's of London and other European insurers, he said.

On the property side, Metrolink carries a $500,000 per-occurrence deductible. The coverage is written to limits of $100 million, the first layer by Lexington Insurance Co., a Boston-based subsidiary of American International Group Inc., according to Mr. Wylie.

The crash follows a Jan. 6 train wreck in Graniteville, S.C., that left nine dead and more than 200 injured when a Norfolk Southern Railway Co. train carrying chlorine slammed into a parked locomotive. Lexington also participated on that train's coverage program.