SOME RETURN TO TRAVEL ON METROLINK.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Staff Writer

NEWHALL - Melody de la Rosa, 33, of Valencia was thrown from one side of the Metrolink train to the other and then forced to jump off after Monday's fiery crash and derailment.

On Tuesday, she was back on board the commuter train.

De la Rosa was one of about 15 passengers who boarded at the Jan Heidt Metrolink train station in Newhall a day after the crash that killed one man and injured 33 others.

``It's still better than the traffic,'' de la Rosa said minutes before boarding the train. ``It was horrific. I thought I was going to die. But I'm back today.''

While de la Rosa normally takes an earlier train, on Monday she took the 9 a.m. train from Newhall because she had to take her kids to school. Tuesday she took the later train again after repairing some wind damage at home.

De la Rosa was headed to her secretarial job Monday in Los Angeles when the train derailed after hitting a truck crossing the tracks.

The truck exploded and caught fire. The driver was pronounced dead at the crash site and several people were injured.

``You could see your life going, zoom,'' de la Rosa said. ``I thought I was going to die.''

Two cars fell off the tracks and overturned while the car that de la Rosa was in was pushed partially atop the car in front of it.

``I had to jump quite a big distance downward,'' de la Rosa said. ``I had to jump into the arms of two police officers.''

Two off-duty police officers were among the passengers and helped other passengers off the train.

Dan Gilbert, 65, of Valencia nursed a sore arm suffered Monday, but he, too, gathered courage to board the train again.

After feeling a strong, unfamiliar vibration on the train before Monday's crash, ``I immediately laid down on the floor and grabbed the rails on either side of me,'' said Gilbert. ``All these people were screaming and yelling all around me.''

When the train stopped, his car was on its side and Gilbert said he was immobilized. ``It lasted only seconds, but it felt like it was 10 minutes,'' Gilbert said.

``I was wedged between the floor and the seat,'' he added. ``I couldn't get up. I wasn't stuck but I just couldn't move.''

Three other passengers helped Gilbert up, and with the help of a passer-by who broke open a window, the four made it out of the train.

``It was pretty frightening,'' Gilbert said.

Metrolink officials said ridership was down regionwide, with just half the number of passengers on the line that travels from the Antelope Valley through Santa Clarita to downtown, said Sharon Gavin, spokeswoman for Metrolink.

``The incident yesterday may have affected people's decision not to take the train this morning,'' Gavin said. ``We'll see how they pick up later in the week.''

Ridership fell from the average daily 2,200 to 1,400, Gavin said.

Crystal Taylor, 16, of Val Verde boarded the train Tuesday to shop in Glendale with two friends, Jessica O'Mara, 15, of Canyon Country and Princess Sylve, 16, of Val Verde.

``I'm a little scared,'' Taylor said. ``I wasn't sure about the whole idea. Before I left, I prayed that we get to our destination safely and then home safely.''

The girls said they were prepared for trouble.

``We're not sitting in the front and we're not sitting in the back,'' said O'Mara. ``We're ready to jump if we have to. We're prepared.''