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2008-10-02 09:34:46
By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press WriterThu Oct 2, 1:48 AM ET
A commuter train engineer sent a cell phone text message 22 seconds before his
commuter train crashed head-on into freight train in Southern California 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 news release.
The finding led Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman to announce
an emergency order 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.
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 show that he sent
24 text messages and received 21 over a two-hour period during his morning
shift. During his afternoon shift, he received seven messages and sent five.
Sanchez sent his last text message at 4:22:01 p.m. According to the freight
train's on-board recorder, the accident occurred at 4:22:23 p.m.
Metrolink board member Richard Katz said in an interview that the NTSB told 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 whom 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
statements, saying she couldn't discuss personnel records. But she did say that
the company has a strict policy on cell phone use and that anyone who violates
it will face discipline.
NTSB investigators continue to correlate times from Sanchez's cell phone, the
train recorders and data from the railroad signal system, officials said. The
cellular records were subpoenaed from his service provider, but his actual
phone was not found in the burned wreckage.
"I am pleased with the progress of this major investigation to date," acting
NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said in a statement. "We are continuing to
pursue many avenues of inquiry to find what caused this accident and what can
be done to prevent such a tragedy in the future."
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
that 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
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.
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 speed of the trains and the time each engineer had to see the other,
a collision at that point could not have been prevented.