Lounge of Tomorrow - LA commuter train wreck

Engineer sent text 22 seconds before fatal train crash (CNN.com):

Quote:

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Metrolink engineer driving a commuter train sent a text message about 22 seconds before the train collided with a Union Pacific freight train last month, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.

The crash killed 25 people, including the engineer, Robert Sanchez, during Friday rush hour in Chatsworth, a northwest Los Angeles suburb.

The 46-year-old engineer sent a text message at 4:22:01 p.m. on September 12, the NTSB said, citing information on his cell phone activity that the safety board subpoenaed from his service provider.

The preliminary estimate of the time for the head-on collision is 4:22:23 p.m., NTSB said, citing Union Pacific train's onboard recorders.

Sanchez last received a text message at 4:21:03 p.m., NTSB said.

After the incident, California Public Utilities Commission banned train operators from texting on the job.

In pushing for the ban, Commission President Michael Peevey said cell phone use by engineers "may have been a factor" in train accidents this year in San Francisco and Sacramento, California.

He did not elaborate on details of those incidents. Thursday's order is temporary until the state commission decides whether to make it permanent.

Metrolink prohibits cell phone use by engineers on the job, but Peevey emphasized there is no federal or California regulation barring cell phone use by engineers while trains are moving.

The NTSB determined the brakes on the Metrolink train were not applied before the collision and that stop signals at the scene were working properly, said Kitty Higgins, an NTSB member assigned to the investigation.

Metrolink has said its train, carrying about 220 passengers, failed to stop for a red signal.

Twenty-four bodies were found at the scene after the head-on collision. A 25th victim, a man in his 50s, died at a hospital. More than 130 people were injured.

The agency said it also has been in contact with two teenagers who told a local television station they were exchanging text messages with the engineer just before the crash.

Higgins said investigators interviewed a Metrolink train conductor who had worked with Sanchez since April.

The conductor "had no issues of his time working with the engineer and on how the engineer operated the train," she said.