Because he forgot (got distracted) what he was supposed to do.
How does the engineer of a commuter train leave the station, without knowing that he will have to ‘wait’ for a Freight train to get off on the siding?
He was told by signal indication before entering the station and stopping. For him to have red after leaving the station he had to have entered on a yellow..telling him the next signal may be red. Once again he forgot what he was doing.
How many other lights did he have to ignore, to get to the final ‘red’ light (that he allegedly missed), and to be doing such speed?
He ignored or forgot about the one before he ran. That is all it takes, miss one and you are in trouble. And yes commute trains accelerate much faster than a freight.
Sir, the manner in which you explained the operation of the lights, switches and trains allowed even a dumb fool such as myself to understand it. Congratulations!
“He ignored or forgot about the one before he ran. “
So that final text message may have had nothing to do with the accident?
If he ignored the lights before he left the station, something more than just ‘texting’ was involved.