They ask for help from the community to repatriate the bodies of two immigrants to Nicaragua.

Relatives of cousins ​​José Domingo Maradiaga Hernández, 40, and Marvin José Maradiaga Padilla, 46, in addition to being heartbroken by their tragic deaths during a Metro Line A (blue) train collision, are among the rock and difficult place because they were unable to obtain the $15,000 needed to repatriate the bodies to their native Leon, Nicaragua.

“They barely had a week to find a stable job,” Claudia Amaya, a cousin of the deceased who lives in Tucker, Georgia and is the main organizer of a GoFundMe fundraising account, told La Opinión to raise money. to send the bodies to Nicaragua.

On Monday, February 20, a railroad accident occurred east of 24th Street and Long Beach Avenue, in the Central Alameda neighborhood.

The car in which José Domingo and Marvin were traveling was hit by an iron mass around 6:15 pm, shortly after the victims had left work.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation, officer Warren Moore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), told La Opinión.

In addition to the two dead, three were reported injured. One of them is Melvin Antonio Maradiaga Hernandez, Jose Domingo’s younger brother, who was released from the hospital on Saturday. He didn’t get any fractures.

Brothers José Domingo and Melvin, as well as their cousin Martin, escaped the extreme poverty they lived in in their country and embarked on an adventure in October 2022. It took them a month to get to the United States border and they had a few weeks left, they found work in the United States.

“I beg people with good hearts to help us get the bodies to Nicaragua,” Ileana Maradiaga Hernandez, 46, said by phone from Nicaragua. We don’t have money to bring them.

Ileana said that in the Sutiawa region of León, Nicaragua, her brothers and cousin were carpenters, although their work was barely enough to survive.

In Los Angeles, they worked for a soap company near the scene of the tragedy.

“They saved some money because they were planning to go to the United States; They had little money and had to ask for a loan of $1,500 each,” Ileana said. “This money is still owed and we don’t know what will need to be done to pay the bank.”

Ileana said that, in addition to her mother, Gladys Mercedes Hernandez, and her father, Domingo de la Cruz, being sick, everyone in the family went from house to house and church to church to ask for help from neighbors. to pay off a debt that his brothers and a late cousin had taken on.

She described José Domingo as a good brother. “He was good all the time,” he added. “He was a good son, a good husband and father… He went to the United States to give his family, dad and mom a better life.”

He considered his cousin Marvin to be a hardworking man, content with his family and children.

“His parents had already died and he was practically alone, but he lived with us, his family.”

José Domingo is survived by his wife and son; while Marvin mourns his wife and two children, aged 11 and 9.

It was not until Tuesday of this week that the dead victims were identified.

None of the passengers on the train were seriously injured in the collision, although one person was treated on the spot for back pain.

“Approximately 125 passengers disembarked from the train with no health complaints,” the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement. “Two drivers also disembarked. One was rated as a precaution.”

other accidents

On December 22, 2022, a subway train broke in half. in the van An SUV during an accident on the Blue Line in South Los Angeles.

Two people were injured in an accident that occurred in the quarter 1600, East of Vernon Avenue, near the train station. Metro of the same name.

The car was badly damaged and wedged between the train and the fence.

According to preliminary data, the SUV driver turned around.or to the left in front of the train. The woman was hospitalized.

On December 31, a cyclist was seriously injured when he was hit by a subway train in Long Beach.

The one-sided collision occurred near the intersection of Spring Street and Del Mar Avenue as the cyclist was traveling west on Spring Street and swerved between guardrails north of Willow Station on the A. Meter line.

The injured cyclist, identified only as a man, was taken to hospital in critical condition, according to Long Beach Fire Captain Jack Crabtree.

And on January 21 this year, four people suffered minor injuries in a collision between a Metro A-Line train and a passenger car in South Los Angeles.

Paramedics were sent to the 1300 block of East Washington Boulevard at 9:41 a.m., Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

Causes of failures

Collisions between cars and trains on this Blue Line have been a regular occurrence since the line opened in 1990.

While LA’s subway trains are highly specialized and modern, many rail accidents are caused by “operators’ negligence or lack of proper training and qualifications,” according to Ohowat-based law firm Sherman Oaks.

The law firm adds on its website that California Civil Code §2100 states that city and state common rail carriers must exercise the highest level of passenger care, including a reasonable degree of ability to perform the job.

“Failure to comply with this law puts the city of Los Angeles in a dead end. [de los acusados] and bears potential liability for the damage caused to them, ”the lawyers point out.

railway problems

According to the law firm, problems on the railroad related to lack of vehicle maintenance include: defective railroad tracks, inadequate railroad maintenance, improperly parked railcars, depot insecurity, sudden derailment, speeding, and other causes.

However, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration estimates that at the national level, train intrusions into the right-of-way cause more than 400 deaths each year, most of which are preventable.

Railroad or railroad crossing incidents are the second leading cause of railroad deaths in the United States.