Engineer Sent A Text Just Before LA Crash

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.