Did Texting Cause Deadly L.A. Train Crash?

Engineer Blamed For Running Stop Signal May Have Been Text Messaging; Warning System Could Have Averted Tragedy, NTSB Says

(CBS/AP)  Federal officials investigating a commuter rail collision that killed 26 people said they want to review cell phone records to determine if an engineer blamed for running a stop signal before the crash may have been text messaging at the time.

Coroner's assistant chief Ed Winter said a 26th death was reported to his office on Monday, of a man who died at County-USC Medical Center. His name was withheld pending notification of relatives.

With no answer on the cause of Friday's crash, a smaller number of commuters than normal returned to the rails Monday morning.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa boarded one of the morning's earliest trains.

"I want to dispel any fears about taking the train," the mayor said. "Safety has to be our number one concern, and while accidents can and do happen, taking the train is still one of the safest and fastest options for commuters."

The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed on Sunday that the engineer, who was killed in the crash, had failed to stop at the final red signal.

CBS Station KCAL correspondent Kristine Lazar reported exclusively that one minute before the crash, a teenager received a text message on his cell phone from the engineer, whom friends identified as Robert Sanchez.

The text message received told where Sanchez would be meeting another passenger train.

But train enthusiasts who knew Sanchez well doubt that he was to blame. They called their friend professional and caring. To a man, they said he would "never" have been reckless or unprofessional.

Another of Sanchez's friends, teenager Evan Morrison, told Lazar that Sanchez "was not the kind of guy who would run a red light."

When asked by KCAL to comment on the report, Metrolink spokesperson Denise Tyrell said, "I can't believe someone could be texting while driving a train."

KCAL said the teen was among a group of youths who befriended the engineer and asked him questions about his work.

NTSB board member Kitty Higgins said investigators did not find a cell phone belonging to the engineer in the wreckage but would request his cell phone records, as well as those of the boys.

"We are going to be obtaining records from their cell phones and from the cell phones of the deceased engineer and will use our subpoena authority or whatever other legal authority we need and to begin to determine exactly what happened and what if any role that might have played in this accident," she said Sunday.

The commuter train carrying 220 people rolled past stop signals Friday and barreled head-on into a Union Pacific train in Chatsworth. The accident, the nation's deadliest rail disaster in 15 years, left train cars so mangled that some bodies had to be removed in pieces. The crash injured 138 people.

Also Monday, the Metrolink spokeswoman who announced Saturday that the engineer's mistake caused the crash resigned. She said the railroad's board called her announcement "premature," even though NTSB officials later backed it up.

Metrolink did not return phone messages on the resignation.

NTSB investigators said Sunday that the train failed to stop at the final red signal, which forced the train onto a track at 42 mph where the Union Pacific freight was traveling in the opposite direction, Higgins said at a news conference.

Higgins said she believed the crash could have been prevented with technology that stops a train on the track when a signal is disobeyed. The technology was not in place where the collision occurred.

"I believe this technology could have prevented the accident. If he ran the signal the train would have been stopped. I've seen it tested. It makes a difference," she said.

For decades the NTSB has asked for collision warning systems on trains, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

The warning system works when transponders in the tracks monitor location and speed of moving trains. If two trains are coming at each other on the same track, the system automatically shuts them down, avoiding a head-on collision. But in the lower 48 states, Tracy reports, the technology exists on just 240 miles of track, mostly in the northeast corridor.

But in southern California, where commuter and freight trains share more track than any other place in the country, there is no warning system.

Higgins said audio recordings from the commuter train indicate a period of silence as it passed the last two signals before the fiery wreck, a time when the engineer and the conductor should have been performing verbal safety checks.

She cautioned, however, that the train may have entered a dead zone where the recording was interrupted.

Higgins said the NTSB would measure the distance between the signals along the track on Monday. Investigators also want to interview the conductor, who was injured, about the recording, she said.

"He'll be able to tell us whether he recalls the engineer calling out and him confirming those signals," Higgins said.

Data show that the Metrolink train ran the red light signal with devastating consequences.

"The Metrolink train went through the signal, did not observe the red signal and essentially forced open this section of the switch," Higgins said. "The switch bars were bent like a banana. It should be perfectly straight."

Higgins said experts still must examine whether the signal was working properly and were in the Metrolink engineer's line of sight.

However, she stressed that obeying signals on the track was an engineer's responsibility at the helm of a train.

"My understanding is it is very unusual for an experienced engineer to run a red light," she said.

Metrolink said earlier Sunday that a dispatcher tried to warn the engineer of the commuter train that he was about to collide with a freight train but the call came too late. The dispatcher reached the conductor in the rear of the train, but by then it had already crashed into the oncoming Union Pacific train, Metrolink officials said.

However, the NTSB contradicted Metrolink's report. Higgins said that the dispatcher noticed something was wrong, but before he could contact the train, the conductor - who survived - called in to report the wreck.

The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track in Chatsworth at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, near a 500-foot-long tunnel underneath Stoney Point Park.

The commuter train was heading from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Ventura County. The impact rammed the Metrolink engine backward, jamming it deep into the first passenger car.

It was the deadliest passenger train crash since Sept. 22, 1993, when Amtrak's Sunset Limited plunged off a trestle into a bayou near Mobile, Ala., moments after the trestle was damaged by a towboat; 47 people were killed.

[farcus55]

Has anyone even considered the possibility that the Engineer could have had a medical crisis, i.e. heart attack, or stroke?

Locomotives have an alertness device that goes off every 30 to 45 seconds, in order to reset you have to move the throttle, use the horn of bell, or use the reset switch.

[farcus55]

It could of been a dispatcher error, signal malfunction, but in most cases it is operator error.

[noirceur]

bdrlnt4rl shut your trap on what YOU don''t know.I am related to one_texan and what was posted is true.

[Renegade.Rivers]

There seems to be a lot more questions than answers here. Yet, the media has already attempted to crucify the engineer without any proof. Has anyone even considered the possibility that the Engineer could have had a medical crisis, i.e. heart attack, or stroke? Nothing of the sort has even been considered, or mentioned. It seems to me that idiots are growing faster than flies these days. For the media to take off on a story like this is imbecilic. This isn''t news this is gossip, and their are plenty of more worthwhile news items that we never see in the corporate media. I wonder why that is? Could it be because they are afraid to tell us the truth, or is it because the big corps just don''t want us to know the truth? To call this news is at the very least laughable.

[bdrlnt4rl]

hunterdon6

i would agree with you on your statement, but there are many train companies that have that device, those are the freight train companies, not some of the passenger companies, go figure.......

[hunterdon6]

The train company said it would cost too much to install safety devices to avoid this type of crash. In other words, they are all about profit and not safety. Its the American way........GREED!

[bdrlnt4rl]

Loyalto1.....read the rest of the post before you reply, you fell right into my trap....

clew37......wrong bub, why do you think they have more than 1 pilots, the same goes for the trains. it is the job of 2 people, a company is cutting corners and putting peoples life on the line if there is only 1 person, and yes, i agree it only takes 1 engineer to run a train, and a conductor sitting right next to them......and you dont DRIVE trains stupid.

[ahrats]

With todays technology how may people have to die before they do something, what it cost too much money so they would rather be sued then fix the problem. If these tracks are that busy there is another altenative put in more tracks so trains do not have to use the same ones.

[shanev137]

The warning system works when transponders in the tracks monitor location and speed of moving trains. If two trains are coming at each other on the same track, the system automatically shuts them down, avoiding a head-on collision. But in the lower 48 states, Tracy reports, the technology exists on just 240 miles of track, mostly in the northeast corridor.

But in southern California, where commuter and freight trains share more track than any other place in the country, there is no warning system.

------------


Someone probably paid an actuarial dude to figure out what was more cost effective:


-To settle class action lawsuits when 100 people die in a crash

-Or install warning devices on thousands of miles of track



My guess is that settling of lawsuits turned out to be the cheapest option.

[clew37]

For bdrlnt4rl:
Every other train seems to run fine with one engineer. Just like every car on the road has one driver. You just have to pay attention, and not play around with other things while driving.