The crash involving a California commuter train and a heavy-duty pick-up truck, which injured 50 people, was an accident.

This was the claim of the lawyer, Ron Bamieh, who is representing the truck driver that had apparently abandoned his vehicle on the tracks, after making a wrong turn in the pre-dawn darkness.

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The incoming train crashed into the Ford pickup, flipping over 3 double-decker Metrolink rail cars, and derailing two others.

The incident happened on Wednesday in Oxnard, about 45 miles (72 kilometer) northwest of Los Angeles.

Ventura County Medical Center Doctor Byran Wong said three people are in critical condition due to injuries, including the train operator who is currently on a ventilator.

Wong said the train operator earlier suffered cardiac arrest and was revived.

The truck driver, 54-year-old Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez, was found more than a mile away from the accident, visibly shaken. He was taken into custody on suspicion he was fleeing from the scene.

Police said Ramirez' action may warrant a felony hit-and-run charge.

The crash tore apart Ramirez' truck.

Police are looking at the possibility that he could be drunk or that he had taken drugs at the time he alighted from his vehicle and left the area.

But Bamieh said, "what we've found in the the time that we've had this case is that this was an accident. All this was an accident."

Bamieh claims Ramirez went away from the scene to try to find help.

In 1998, the truck driver had been arrested due to driving under the influence of alcohol but Bamie said at the time of the train crash on Tuesday there was no indication that Ramirez was intoxicated.

The lawyer also denied speculations that the truck driver had disappeared from the crash site to escape responsibility.

"The reality is, he basically freaked out trying to help people," Bamieh insisted. 

"Did he do everything like James Bond? No. He did the best he could. He's an average guy," he asked.

Ventura county prosecutors will be filing formal charges against Ramirez.

The crossing in Oxnard is a frequent cause of hazard among motorists and the scene of a fatal accident last year.

There are questions on why a highway overpass had not been built there.

Ramirez, on the other hand, has a string of past cases involving minor violations of traffic rules.

Aside from having confessed to drunk driving 16 years ago, Ramirez had also pleaded guilty to another charge of failing to comply with the instructions of a police officer.

He had also taken liquor, while in the company of a minor. It was also discovered that he has no insurance. 

TagsTrain Accident, california