The 2005 Glendale train crash occurred on January 26, 2005, at 6:03 a.m. PST, when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a sport utility vehicle[2] that had been parked on the tracks by a suicidal man in an industrial area of Glendale, California, just east of the Los Angeles city limits, causing the deaths of 11 people and injuring 177 more.

In the early morning rush hour period, southbound Ventura County Line train #100 (approaching Los Angeles) normally carried between 200 and 250 passengers; the northbound Antelope Valley Line train #901 (leaving Los Angeles) normally carried between thirty and fifty passengers.

On January 26, 2005, at 6:03 a.m. PST, Metrolink's southbound Ventura County Line train #100 collided with a sport utility vehicle[2] that had been abandoned on the tracks immediately south of the Chevy Chase Drive grade crossing and near a Costco retail store on the Glendale–Los Angeles boundary (the western edge of the railroad right of way is the dividing line), in an industrial area north of downtown Los Angeles.

Among the first responders to the crash were employees of the Costco store adjacent to the accident site, who placed calls to 9-1-1 and climbed the perimeter fence to aid the victims, pulling out survivors and using fire extinguishers until firefighters arrived.

[5] Juan Manuel Álvarez, who had left his Jeep Cherokee Sport vehicle parked on the tracks,[3] was arrested and charged with eleven counts of murder with "special circumstances."

The root cause of the crash was attributed to the driver of the automobile, Juan Manuel Álvarez of Compton, who deliberately drove onto, and left his vehicle on, the tracks while allegedly attempting to commit suicide.

Both this causation and the end result have many similarities to that of the Ufton Nervet rail crash in the United Kingdom, which occurred only three months previously, although in that case the driver of the car stayed in the vehicle and was killed.

There was criticism[7] that the configuration made the accident worse: claims[8] that if the heavier engine were ahead of the passenger cars, then casualties would have been reduced and might have prevented derailment.

[11][12][13] Survivor John Phipps was made famous due to a Los Angeles Daily News photograph of his farewell to his family and high school sweetheart, which was written in his blood on the interior of a passenger car.

A year after the crash, there was a one-year anniversary in which family members, survivors, and police gathered to remember and for continued support of those affected.

[4] Attorneys Brian Spanish and Jerome Ringler, filed a negligence lawsuit against Metrolink on behalf of a dozen victims in January 2009, claiming that the engineer saw the Jeep 3⁄4 mile (1,200 m) away but did not apply the emergency brakes until 800 feet (240 m) away.

[14] In an October 14, 2009, article appearing in the Los Angeles Times, Metrolink announced it had reached an agreement to settle most of the remaining claims.

[19] Police initially believed that Álvarez decided to kill himself on the day of the collision, but that he changed his mind immediately before the train hit his vehicle, jumping out of the car and observing as the crash took place.