Investigators continued their probe Friday into what caused two trains to collide near Interstate 10 in Fontana, forcing doctors to amputate a conductor's arm to free him from the wreckage.
The 69-car Union Pacific train traveling west collided with a freight train Thursday shortly before midnight west of Cherry Avenue.
The slower-moving freight train, comprised of 100 cars, was heading east, carrying a load of I-beams, said Aaron Hunt, a spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad.
The beams went through the engine of the Union Pacific train, pinning the conductor. Railroad spokesmen had initially said an engineer's arm was amputated, but it turned out to be the conductor's. Doctors from Arrowhead Regional Medical Center were summoned to the collision to perform the amputation.
Several hundred gallons of propylene glycol, a nonhazardous chemical used in automobile anti-freeze and airport de-icing machines, spilled.
Crews were at work early Friday cleaning up the chemical. California Highway Patrol officers closed the eastbound Cherry Avenue off-ramp for several hours and reopened it at 6 a.m.
-- Sam Quinones