The man whose vehicle caused yesterday's Los Angeles train derailment that killed 11 people and injured nearly 200 could face murder charges, police say.

Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, left his jeep parked on the railway line at Glendale after apparently changing his mind about committing suicide.

Mr Alvarez, who had apparently slashed his wrists and stabbed himself in the chest, got out of his vehicle just before the two commuter trains crashed, at dawn on the outskirts of the city.

He stood by and watched the collision, which scattered wreckage and bodies over a quarter of a mile of track. Afterwards he was seen wandering around the disaster scene, muttering: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual that was suicidal," said Randy Adams, the Glendale police chief.

Mr Alvarez was arrested and expected to be charged tomorrow with manslaughter or murder, authorities said.

"The state of mind of the suspect is a central issue, what led him to do whatever acts he did do," said Steve Cooley, the Los Angeles County District Attorney.

The crash was the worst US rail tragedy since an Amtrak train hit a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Illinois, in March 1999, killing 11 people and injuring more than 100.

"I hope that we’re able to assess this in a way that we can figure out: Is there a way that we can stop one crazed individual from creating this kind of carnage?" James Hahn, the Los Angeles Mayor, told reporters.

Two women and nine men were killed. About two dozen people were in critical condition in hospital, while some people believed to have been on the trains were still listed as missing.

Mr Alvarez was also taken to a hospital with knife injuries to his wrists and chest. He was listed in stable condition, and police Sergeant Tom Lorenz said that he was co-operating with inquiries.

His estranged wife, Carmelita Alvarez, had ordered him out of her home months ago, her family said, and in November she went to court seeking a temporary restraining order keeping him away from herself, their three-year-old son, her mother, brother and other family.

"He is using drugs and has been in and out of rehab twice," she told the court when asking for the restraining order, which was granted December 14.

"He threatened to take our kid away and to hurt my family members," she added. "He is planning on selling his vehicle to buy a gun, and threatened to use it."

She has not commented since the crash.

The force of the collision, which happened about 6am, hurled passengers down the trains’ aisles.

"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," said Diane Brady, 56, of Simi Valley. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half it seemed. It was a complete nightmare."

First on the scene were workers at a Costco warehouse store next to the tracks. They helped take some of the injured away in shopping carts. Uninjured passengers also joined the rescue effort. As a light rain fell, more than 300 firefighters climbed ladders into windows of battered train cars to rescue scores of injured.

Costco employee Hugo Moran said that an elderly man covered in blood and soot, and with apparent broken arms and legs, was pulled out of the wreckage but died soon after. Before he died, he thanked his rescuers and asked them to pray for him.

Another trapped man had used his own blood to write a note on a seat bottom. Using the heart symbol, he wrote "I love my kids; and "I love Leslie."

The man’s identity wasn’t known, but Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Captain Rex Vilaubi said that he was removed from the wreckage alive.

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