NTSB report blames Metrolink engineer's text messages for deadly 2008 crash

A federal safety panel concluded Thursday the deadly train crash at Chatsworth nearly a year and a half ago was caused by a train engineer’s failure to stop at a red light because he was sending text messages on his cell phone and had become distracted.

The National Transportation Safety Board ruled the accident could have been prevented if the trains had been fitted with special equipment that monitors the speed and location of trains and can stop them if they are headed toward a collision.

“Tragically, an instant message turned an ordinary commute into a catastrophe,” said Deborah Hersman, the safety board’s chairwoman.

The panel made a number of safety recommendations as a result of the crash, the most significant being that railroads install audio and video recorders in locomotive cabs and monitor the recordings to make sure train crews are following safety procedures.

Union officials have raised concerns the presence of video cameras would violate the privacy of railroad employees.

But Hersman said the safety of the traveling public should trump privacy concerns. “We have to put the collective ahead of the individual,” she said.

The safety board’s probable cause conclusion and safety recommendations follow a 16-month investigation into the crash of a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train near Chatsworth on Sept. 12, 2008.

The accident killed 25 people, including the engineer of the Metrolink train, and injured 135 others.

Cell phone records obtained and made public by federal investigators indicate the Metrolink engineer, Robert Sanchez, had sent and received dozens of text messages the day of the accident, a violation of company policy.

Sanchez worked for Connex Railroad LLC, the contractor that provides engineers for Metrolink trains, and had been disciplined twice for using his cell phone while on duty. But records released by investigators show he made four phone calls and sent or received 95 text messages the day of the accident, including 43 while he was on duty.

Sanchez fired off his last text message — to a teenage acquaintance whom he intended to let drive the train later that night — just 22 seconds before the collision.

“The totality of the information indicates that this engineer really didn’t have his head in the game,” Hersman said.

The conductor of the Union Pacific train also had been sending text messages while on duty the day of the crash and had tested positive for marijuana use, investigators said.

The conductor had been riding up front in the locomotive cab but was not driving the train at the time of the accident, and the safety board concluded his actions did not contribute to the crash.

Regardless, the behavior of Sanchez and the Union Pacific conductor “was just egregious” and shows that the misconduct was not confined to one company, said Robert Sumwalt, a safety board member.

“Something does need to be done across the nation to discourage this type of behavior,” Sumwalt said.

Sanchez had worked a split shift the day of the crash, but federal investigators concluded that neither fatigue nor medical conditions played a role in the crash.

Investigators said Sanchez ran a red light at Topanga, and they dismissed eyewitness accounts that the control signal had been green when the train left the Chatsworth station a few moments earlier. The control signal was so far away that it would have been difficult for the eyewitnesses to see or properly discern the color of the light, investigators said.

“All recorded data and physical evidence in this accident are consistent with the Metrolink train failing to stop at the red signal at Topanga and continuing along the main track reserved for the Union Pacific train,” said Wayne Workman, the agency’s chief investigator for the accident.

The accident led to a federal ban on cell phone use by rail workers and prompted Congress to pass a law requiring the installation of “positive train control” technology, which involves the use of satellite tracking devices to monitor the speed of a train. The technology can automatically stop trains that bypass signals, exceed speed limits or head toward an obstacle in the tracks.

The new federal law requires the technology be installed on all passenger lines by 2015.

“Sadly, it took this accident and 25 more lives and an act of Congress to move this technology from testing to reality on passenger lines,” Hersman said.

Metrolink began using cameras on its trains after the Chatsworth crash and plans to have positive train control technology installed on its trains by 2012.

Workman, however, appeared skeptical the train line would be able to meet that goal. The technology is projected to cost $201 million, and Metrolink is still $100 million short of the necessary funding. Even if the money becomes available, Workman questioned whether Metrolink would have time to properly train its employees and put operational rules in place by 2012.

Moorpark City Councilman Ken Millhouse, chairman of Metrolink’s board of directors, said he is hoping the state and federal government will put up the $100 million.

“It’s time for our leaders to step up and get that money,” he said. “Lip service about rail safety doesn’t cut it.”

Millhouse, who watched a Web cast of the hearings, said he was encouraged by the safety board’s recommendation that audio and video recorders should be installed in locomotive cabs. The panel’s action is an affirmation that Metrolink did the right thing in installing cameras on its trains after the crash, he said.

Oxnard attorney Mark O. Hiepler, who represents a dozen plaintiffs in connection with the crash, said the safety board’s conclusions show the crash was “a tragedy so preventable” and indicate “careless neglect” on the part of Connex because it did not properly monitor Sanchez’s behavior.

“They knew or should have known that he was careless with his cell phone,” said Hiepler, who attended the safety board meeting in Washington. “He had it in the cab, and he was texting. The reckless disregard part, I think, really sets up Connex for a potential punitive damages claim.”

This gay idiot train driver was getting all hot and bothered and distracted as he was texting some of his 14 year old little buddies who were train spotting types. These kids liked to follow the trains

Call this the gay train crash
The gay angle was mostly covered up
Not to be mentioned
If so why bother investigating any train and plane crashes?

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Robert Sanchez, Engineer in L.A. Metrolink Collision, was Gay ...
The LA Times today ran a profile on Robert Sanchez, the Metrolink train engineer who died along with 24 others when the train he was guiding collided with ...
www.livestrong.com/.../robert-sanchez-engineer-in-l-a-metrolink-collision-was-gay_c03e590d-d825-9c9e-2b65-6e9ff0da440f/ - Cached -
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Gay Latino Engineer in Train Crash Had Let Teenage Boys in Cab ...
The board said the Metrolink engineer, Robert Sanchez, didn’t stop at a signal ... but I would never have thought of a Gay Latino train operator/predator ...
us.altermedia.info/.../gay-latino-engineer-in-train-crash-had-let-teenage-boys-in-cab_4778.html - Cached - Similar -
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Confirmed: Metrolink Engineer was Txt Msging Before Crash - LAist
Sep 18, 2008 ... Metrolink Engineer Robert Sanchez ... He and his gay partner bought a home in 2000, but on Valentine’s Day 2003 Daniel Charles Burton killed ...
laist.com/2008/09/18/metrolink_engineers_txt_msging_befo.php - Cached -
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Did Metrolink Engineer Robert Sanchez Commit Suicide By Crashing ...
1 post - Last post: Sep 17, 2008
Officials at Metrolink have said the engineer passed through a red signal without ... I use that Metro-link line. Sanchez was openly gay. ...
www.sodahead.com/...metrolink-engineer-robert-sanchez.../question-155384/ - Cached -
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Engineer led solitary life marked by tragedy - Los Angeles Times
Sep 17, 2008 ... Those who knew Robert M. Sanchez say he was a relentlessly upbeat man with a passion ... At the same time, the Metrolink engineer led a solitary life in recent years. ... seeking better weather and the freedom to be gay. ...
articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/17/local/me-engineer17 - Cached - Similar -

And had it been hot babes instead (is a locomotive a phallic symbol? you decide) would the crash have been any less tragic?

Before cell phones this wasn’t a problem. Those things ought to be banned in the cab of the locomotive except for emergency use.

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