Engineer Sent A Text Just Before LA Crash

Commuter Train Operator Sent Text Message 22 Seconds Before Train Collision; Cell Phones Now Banned

(CBS/AP)  A Metrolink engineer sent a cell phone text message 22 seconds before his commuter train crashed head-on into freight train last month, killing 25 people, federal investigators said Wednesday.

Cell phone records of Robert Sanchez, who was among the dead, show he received a text message a minute and 20 seconds before the crash, and sent one about a minute later, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a press release.

CBS Station KCAL correspondent Kristine Lazar reported exclusively days after the crash that one minute before the collision, a teenager received a text message on his cell phone from the engineer.

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.

The finding led Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman to announce that an emergency order will be issued prohibiting use of personal electronic devices by rail workers operating trains and in other key jobs. The order must be published in the Federal Register to take effect. Spokesman Rob Kulat said that would happen "soon." California regulators have already enacted a ban in response to the disaster.

Investigators are looking into why Sanchez ran through a red signal before the Metrolink train collided with a Union Pacific train Sept. 12 on a curve in the San Fernando Valley community of Chatsworth. The time of the final text suggests it is unlikely he had become incapacitated for some reason.

The records obtained from Sanchez's cell phone provider also showed that he sent 24 text messages and received 21 messages over a two-hour period during his morning shift. During his afternoon shift, he received seven and sent five messages.

Sanchez sent his last text message at 4:22:01 p.m. According to the freight train's onboard recorder, the accident occurred at 4:22:23 p.m.

Metrolink board member Richard Katz said in an interview that the NTSB had informed his agency that another engineer on a Metrolink train has been suspended for sending a text message from his cell phone at about the same time as the Sept. 12 collision. That engineer was not identified.

Katz said Metrolink officials don't know who the other engineer was texting.

Metrolink's engineers are supplied by a contractor, Veolia Transportation. A spokeswoman for the company, Erica Swerdlow, declined to comment on Katz's statement, saying she couldn't comment on employees' personnel records.

The company has a strict cell phone policy for employees, and anyone in violation of that will face disciplinary actions, she said.

NTSB investigators were continuing to correlate times from Sanchez's cell phone records, the train recorders and data from the railroad signal system. Investigators subpoenaed the cellular records from his service provider. His actual phone was never found after the crash, which ignited a fire and left the locomotive and first passenger car a tangle of wreckage.

NTSB investigators have found no indication of mechanical error, signal malfunction or problems with the track. While the NTSB has not made a finding about the cause of the crash, Metrolink has already said Sanchez went through the red stop light.

Investigators are looking into Sanchez's work schedule and activities in the 72 hours leading up to the crash. The engineer was working a 10½-hour split shift that day. He began his shift at 6 a.m., took a nap during a 4 1/2-hour break and resumed duty at 2 p.m., about 2 1/2 hours before the crash, the NTSB said. His shift was to have ended at 9 p.m.

NTSB spokesman Terry Williams declined to release information about who was exchanging text messages with Sanchez or the content of the messages.

In the days after the crash, several teenage train enthusiasts told a reporter Sanchez sent them a text message just before the collision. Federal investigators spurred by the media reports interviewed two 14-year-old boys, who they said cooperated in the investigation and provided their cell phone data.

One of the teens showed KCBS-TV a message from Sanchez, which had a 4:22 p.m. time stamp. The message read: "Yea ... usually (at) north Camarillo." The Metrolink 111 train he was operating stops in Camarillo, northwest of Chatsworth.

The collision, which also injured more than 130 people, occurred on a track that was shared by both freight and commuter trains.

Investigators said Sanchez was supposed to stop and allow the approaching freight train to switch onto a parallel track, but instead went past the red signal and crossed the closed switch, putting the commuter train on a collision course with the oncoming freight.

The Metrolink train was coming around a curve at 42 mph and the freight train was coming out of a tunnel at 41 mph.

Federal investigators said the engineers of each train had no more than four or five seconds to react before the crash. The freight engineer activated the emergency brake two seconds before impact, but brakes were never applied on the Metrolink train.

Given the speeds of the trains and the little time each engineer had to see the other train, a collision at that point could not be prevented.

James Sottile, a rail consultant and former Federal Railroad Administration signal and train control specialist, said that considering the weight and distance between both trains, there wasn't enough time to fully stop.

A 100-car freight train traveling at 55 mph needs more than a mile to stop once the train is set into emergency braking. A commuter train would take less than a mile to stop because its deceleration rate is higher, Sottile said.

[winslowe1]

Heard this 3 weeks ago.

[magoo2u1]

"Obviously these individuals are very immature morons who also were only concerned about their selfish interests and not those of others potentially being placed in harm''''s way by their distractive actions."

Read the article: They are 14. It is always the responsibility of adults to take the lead in any situation such as this. Nobody, is responsible for your actions but you. Regardless of the age of the texter, the engineer is an adult and responsible for what he did.

[credibility2]

Something that seems to be overlooked is the culpability of the person or persons sending and receiving text messages from this train operator. These individuals definitely knew the operator was actively working and should have refrained from actively communicating with the operator and thereby distracting him from doing his job. Obviously these individuals are very immature morons who also were only concerned about their selfish interests and not those of others potentially being placed in harm''s way by their distractive actions. I wonder how they can continue to live with themselves. Oh, my bad, I forgot. These types of individuals haven''t any sense of responsibility and having been an accessory to this horrific accident.

[jt92202]

Investigators said Sanchez was supposed to stop and allow the approaching freight train to switch onto a parallel track, but instead went past the red signal and crossed the closed switch, putting the commuter train on a collision course with the oncoming freight.

My question is when he was suppose to stop is there a text message. The text message 22 seconds before they hit was not the reason he didn''t stop at the red signal. Did I miss something in the story or didn''t they state when the red light came on and what time he went through it? It takes a lot to stop these trains so he had to go through the light anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes before the text message, I''m not a train expert but it seems a time line has been left out. No matter what the engineer should not have been texting but what was he doing at the time of the red light and the intersection?

[presjfk]

Too bad the technology wasn''t used to send the engineers of both trains a text message, "stop the train! -you are about to have a head on collision, "

[presjfk]

I cannot believe, not for a second, that this accident was the result of an engineer reading a text message. Is the technology so antiquated that 2 trains can be put on the same track heading for each other and there is not automated warning system?

This sounds like a cover up to me with the poor engineer being the scapegoat.

[blackyowe]

Our society is so stupid it is amazing. We have complete idiots in every position of responsibility from train engineers to the White House. This was a case of Darwin at work but this fool engineer took all those innocent train passengers with him

[mandalay-bay]

OMG thas BS IMO.

[rwsmith29456]

I was under the dumb impression that not only did technology exist that would have prevented this accident, but that it had been in use for years. Boy was that stupid. Sounds like the trains infrastructure is aa outdated as the airlines are.

[heero2020]

"25 dead from one self indulgent moron playing with himself. "

4100 Americans died in Iraq for the same reason

[flreason]

How sad that the apparent distraction of one person could cause so much pain and suffering for the families of the injured and dead. I''m sure that the family of the engineer will carry the burden of his actions for the rest of their lives, as well.

It''s good that texting will be banned by train operators, but I wonder how enforceable the ban is. At least for a time, the consequences of this one incident will undoubtedly be a deterrent to on-the-job texting by others whose jobs may be boring, but who hold the lives of others in their hands.

[upto1947]

All any failsafe technology would do is cost RR more.

CBS deleted my post. How Socialist is that? They do that alot. Anything they don''t really like or agree with. That is the CBS is. CBS is as DUMB as it gets. I am on here just to see how dumb people are.

[credibility2]

Although technology exists that could''ve stopped the train, this would merely override the moral and ethical obligation an individual has to do the job for which they were hired and refrain from doing anything that distracts them from that responsibility. Perhaps individuals in jobs like this should be frisked and patted down to make sure they aren''t carrying cell phone, blackberry or any other type of device that is a temptation for the spineless, selfish and immoral. Of course, there will be those who think that what this moron did was within his rights.

[jamesetling4]

25 dead from one self indulgent moron playing with himself.

[cbsblogger]

Why was not failsafe technology in place that would have shut down the train when it went through that signal? The question about texting is pertinent but the real problem is why there weren''t secondary controls that would recognize this failure. What if the engineer had a heart attack or seizure?

There used to be "firemen" in the engines just as there are co-pilots on airplanes but the railroads cut costs. These firemen served as backup eyes and ears. They should have been required to have failsafe technology when they eliminated human backup.

[jmpnghosafat]

These idiots don''t even deserve enough tears to dampen a tiny corner of a kleenex. They deserve exactly what they get just for putting others in danger in order to feed their "I''m so important" egos. That THEY die because they are imbeciles doesn''t bother me. What bothers me are the VICTIMS who are unfortunate to be in their vicinity or trusting them to get them from point A to point B safely. Screw the engineer. My prayers are for the innocent passengers.

[rational_1]

I''''m actually surprised this doesn''''t happen more often. I''''ve nearly been smashed three times by texting drivers.
Posted by sylvie2344 at 05:55 PM : Oct 01, 2008

Maybe it''s too bad that Hummers are going the way of the dodo. I''d love to see the panicked look on a distracted texter''s face a second before I plowed into him driving a big-a$$ Hummer. There are a lot of seriously brain dead drivers out there. A couple of months ago I saw this idiot woman driver yakking away on her cell phone take out a deer at 60 mph. I was two cars back and could clearly see the deer approaching the road and yet she never even hit her brakes.

[txgrouch2006]

I would like to find out who his parents are so I can tell them what a *** I N G moron they raised.
Posted by jeff607 at 07:27 PM : Oct 01, 2008

Why not conference in the families of a few of the victims who were killed.

How much you wanna bet, the parents will just say "Shut up" and hang up on you.

The apple doesn''t fall far from the tree.

[grizzster]

Railfan: Hey, man lk out 4 that frate!
Sanchez: *** u talkin about? Wht fr( C R U N C H )

Cellphones, cellphone cameras, and text messaging are a scourage upon mankind. Yes, they have really, really, really improved our civilization.

(If you believe that, I have a bridge you might like, for sale, cheap...such a deal!)

Grizzster

[nothappyatall]

Text messaging,emailing, anything while driving should be against the law.

This is getting insane!
Posted by StopSocialis

A LAW wont do a *** thing, because he was ALONE in his cab, what needs to happen is when the employee clocks in for work and has a personal cell phone with him- the supervisor takes the employees CELL PHONE away until after the shift is over.

The moron was texting 20+ times on company time instead of DRIVING the train, time to take the phone toys away while on the clock.