Metrolink Engineer Texting With Teen Moments Before Killer Commuter Crash

**min0 lee** · 09-14-2008, 09:20 PM

They really need to ban train operators from text messaging.
I really can't get into this text messaging fad...it's a stupid waste of time and in this case a deadly one.

FOXNews.com - Report: Metrolink Engineer Texting With Teen Moments Before Killer Commuter Crash - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News
LOS ANGELES â€” The engineer of the Metrolink train that crashed in a head-on collision near Chatsworth, California, was chatting with a teenager moments before the crash, according to the Orange County Register.

Nick Williams, a teenage train enthusiast, told CBS2 in Los Angeles he exchanged three text messages with engineer Robert Sanchez Friday afternoon. Williams, who considered Sanchez a â€œmentor,â€ received the last text at 4:22 p.m., one minute before the train wreck, according to the ocregister.com report. Williams' claims have not been confirmed.

Sanchez, who was killed in the crash, said in his final text he would be meeting up with another passenger train later that day.

â€œI just replied back, 'good deal,' and I just said, 'That's cool,' and I never got a response back," Williams reportedly told CBS2.

Friday night's rail disaster was the nation's deadliest in 15 years, a wreck that killed 25 people and left such a mass of smoldering, twisted metal that it took nearly a day to recover all the bodies.

A preliminary investigation found that "it was a Metrolink engineer that failed to stop at a red signal and that was the probable cause" of the collision with a freight train in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said.

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"When two trains are in the same place at the same time somebody's made a terrible mistake," said Tyrrell, who was shaking and near tears as she spoke with reporters.

Click to view photos | Click for more at MyFOXLA.com

Many of the 25 people killed had been in the front car of the Metrolink train, which was crushed like an accordion in the wreck.

A total of 135 people were injured, with 81 transported to hospitals in serious or critical condition. There was no overall condition update available Saturday, but a telephone survey of five hospitals found nine of 34 patients still critical. Many were described as having crush injuries.

Firefighter Searcy Jackson III, a 20-year veteran and one of the first to pull bodies from the wreckage, said he had never seen such devastation. The 50-year-old said his team pulled one living passenger from the train and cut the mangled metal to remove about a half-dozen bodies.

"We saw bodies where the metal had been pushed together and ... we cut them out piece by piece. They were trapped in the metal," said Jackson, 50, who was back at the scene Saturday afternoon.

Firefighters who extricated the dead from the wreck were rotated in and out of the scene to prevent emotional exhaustion.

"There are some things we are trained for, there are some things I don't care what kind of training you have, you don't always prepare for," fire Capt. Armando Hogan said. "This situation, particularly early on, with people inside the train, with the injuries, and with people moaning and crying and screaming, it was a traumatic experience."

The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track in Chatsworth at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, near a 500-foot-long tunnel underneath Stoney Point Park. There is a siding at one end of the tunnel where one train can wait for another to pass.

"Even if the train is on the main track, it must go through a series of signals and each one of the signals must be obeyed," Tyrrell said. "What we believe happened, barring any new information from the NTSB, is we believe that our engineer failed to stop ... and that was the cause of the accident.

"We don't know how the error happened," she said, adding that Metrolink determined the cause by reviewing dispatch records and computers.

Higgins, of the NTSB, which is leading the probe, said her agency is waiting to complete its investigation before making any statements about the cause of the accident.

Some were puzzled, even dubious, that Metrolink pointed the finger at the engineer so quickly.

"It is a rush to judgment," said Ray Garcia, who until 2006 was a conductor on the same Metrolink 111 train.

Garcia, who now works for Amtrak, ticked off several scenarios in which initial evidence could turn out to be misleading, such as if a central computer showed that a signal was red when on the tracks it was not.

"Just because Metrolink says it was the fault of the engineer, it doesn't mean it's true," said Garcia, who knew the engineer through work. "It's just way too early in the game to point the finger."

Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metrolink board member Don Knabe also said it's premature to blame the engineer.

"There could always be a technical malfunction where ... there was a green light both ways," he said.

A local teenager told CBS2-TV that he had exchanged a brief text message with the engineer shortly before the crash. The station reported that the teen, Nick Williams, was among a group of kids who befriended the engineer and asked him questions about his work.

Tyrrell said before the report aired that she would find it "unbelievable" that an engineer would be text messaging while operating a train. Using a cell phone on duty is against Metrolink rules, former conductor Garcia said.

The NTSB hopes to complete its final report within a year. Tyrrell said Metrolink was stepping ahead of the agency with its findings because "we want to have an honest dialogue with our community."

Higgins said rescue crews on Saturday recovered two data recorders from the Metrolink train and one data recorder and one video recorder from the freight train. The video has pictures from forward-looking cameras and the data recorders have information on speed, braking patterns and whether the horn was used.

The Metrolink train, heading from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Ventura County, was carrying 220 passengers, one engineer and one conductor when it collided with the Union Pacific freight, with a crew of three, about 4:30 p.m. Friday. It is common in California for freight and commuter trains to use one track.

The crash forced the Metrolink engine well back into the first passenger car, and both toppled over. Two other passenger cars remained upright. The passenger train was believed to have been traveling about 40 mph.

"It's the worst feeling in the world because you know what you're going to find," said fire Capt. Alex Arriola, who had crawled into the bottom of the smashed passenger car. "You have to put aside the fact that it's someone's husband, daughter or friend."

Police set up what they called a unification center at a local high school to try to connect worried people with information about friends or relatives who they believed were aboard the train.

Families of eight of the dead had been notified and two women who were pronounced dead at hospitals were unidentified, coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter said.

Authorities released the names of 20 of the victims Saturday. They include Los Angeles police Officer Spree Desha, 35, of Simi Valley, who was riding the train home.

Veronica Gonzalez spent a frantic night and day searching local hospitals for her niece Maria Elena Villalobos before learning she was among the dead.

"She was just the sweetest, kindest, always-trying-to-help-everyone person you would ever meet," Gonzalez said of the 18-year-old, who had just started her first semester at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in downtown Los Angeles.

Tyrrell, the Metrolink spokeswoman, said the engineer had driven the agency's trains since 1996 and worked for a subcontractor, Veolia, since 1998. She said she didn't know if the engineer ever had any previous problems operating trains or had any disciplinary issues.

Veolia issued a statement Saturday calling the collision a "tragic incident." The company said it is cooperating with NTSB's investigation.

Garcia, the former Metrolink conductor, said he knew the engineer involved in the crash for nine years and called him qualified and talented.

Garcia said he knows the stretch of track where the collision occurred and believes engineers are warned twice with yellow lights before reaching a red light at the end of a siding.

Tim Smith, state chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a union representing engineers and conductors, said issues that could factor into the crash investigation could be faulty signals along the track or engineer fatigue.

He said engineers in California are limited to 12 hours a day running a train, although that can be broken up over a stretch as long as 18 hours.

It was not immediately clear how many hours the train's engineer had worked.

Until Friday, Metrolink's worst disaster was on Jan. 26, 2005, in suburban Glendale, where a man parked a gasoline-soaked SUV on railroad tracks. A Metrolink train struck the SUV and derailed, striking another Metrolink train traveling the other way, killing 11 people and injuring about 180 others. Juan Alvarez was convicted this year of murder for causing the crash.

Friday's train crash was the deadliest since Sept. 22, 1993, when the Sunset Limited, an Amtrak train, plunged off a trestle into a bayou near Mobile, Ala., moments after the trestle was damaged by a towboat; 47 people were killed.

Below is a list of people killed in Friday's Metrolink train disaster and information known about them. Families of two male victims and one female have not been notified and the coroner's office has not released their names. Two other men, one of whom died at a hospital, also have not been identified:

â€” Christopher Aiken, 38

â€” Dennis Arnold, 75

â€” Dean Lafoy Brower, 51

â€” Alan Lloyd Buckley, 59, a mechanic for the city of Burbank

â€” Spree Desha, 35, of Simi Valley, Los Angeles Police Department Officer

â€” Walter Arney Fuller, 54

â€” Michael Hammersly, 45

â€” Jacob Hefter, 18, of Palmdale, a student at California State University, Long Beach

â€” Kari Hsieh, no age given

â€” Ernest Stephen Kish II, 47

â€” Gregory Lintner, 48

â€” Manuel Macias, 31, of Santa Paula, a yoga instructor

â€” Aida Magdeleno, 19

â€” Charles Peck, 58

â€” Howard Barry Pompel, 69

â€” Donna Remata, 49, of Simi Valley

â€” Doyle Jay Souser, 56

â€” Atul Vyas, 20

â€” Maria Elena Villalobos, 18, of North Park, a student at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising

â€” Yi Chao, 71

**min0 lee** · 09-15-2008, 01:44 PM

Warning System Could Prevent Train Crashes

A

NDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: Monday, September 15, 2008 at 7:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, September 15, 2008 at 4:15 a.m.
LOS ANGELES â€” Federal investigators said Sunday that a collision warning system they have long called for could have prevented the head-on crash here last week between a commuter train and a freight train that killed 25 people.

Axel Koester for The New York Times
Investigators continued to work Sunday morning at the scene of a California train crash that killed 25 people late last week.

The system, known as positive train control and in use sporadically in parts of the country, â€œwould have prevented this accident,â€ said Kitty Higgins, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident.

The board has long pressed for such a system on all trains, but the industry has resisted on the grounds that it is expensive and in some cases not reliable.

But Ms. Higgins, speaking at a news conference here Sunday evening, said she made her assessment after reviewing the preliminary evidence of the investigation, which she said showed that the commuter train bypassed a red signal and barreled through a switch, bending it â€œlike a banana.â€

A collision avoidance system, she said, would have automatically slowed the trains, perhaps stopping them in time before they met in the deadliest train accident in the country in 15 years. More than 130 people were injured, and workers on Sunday were still clearing the wreckage.

**min0 lee** · 09-15-2008, 01:46 PM

The NYC transit system has a set up that when there is a red signal it turns on a tripper which stops the train.

**maniclion** · 09-15-2008, 02:30 PM

Our local paper just ran a story about how people lose all awareness of their surroundings when texting....

ARE PEOPLE TOO ADDICTED TO THEIR PHONES?
Textaholics rising
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

For users of BlackBerrys, iPhones and similar devices, it might seem the world is passing them by. In reality, it's all in the palms of their hands.
JEFF WIDENER | The Honolulu Advertiser

â€œI find people donâ€™t have a sense of people right in front of them. You are more tempted to sit and text someone than carry on a polite conversation with the person in front of you.â€ Jen Ozawa | who says sheâ€™s â€œguilty of texting and browsing the Web in publicâ€

They had the world at their fingertips, but still wound up at the wrong place. The two women were so mesmerized by their smartphones that when the elevator they were riding opened up, they just walked out. Neither one realized the mistake â€” or the other's presence â€” until the doors shut and they looked up from their screens.
Absorbed in distant dialogue, both women lost track of the here and now.
"I don't think either of us noticed the other person," says Kai Brown, a 32-year-old real-estate woman from Kane'ohe. "It wasn't until she said something that I realized she was even there. She said, 'What would we do without our phones?' I said, 'Probably talk to each other.' "
Smartphones, such as iPhones, Treos and Blackberrys, link people as never before. With them, users can access their e-mail, surf the Web, send texts, take photographs, listen to music and yes, even call someone. Millions of messages tug at attention spans every day.
But the side effect is this: People can be so addicted to their tiny screens and keyboards that they often barely notice what's going on around them. The digital world has a term for it: continuous partial attention.
The phenomenon shows no sign of letting up. Mobile phone use, including the multitasking BlackBerries and iPhones, among the most ubiquitous models, continues to grow just about everywhere.
EAGER LEGION OF USERS
The Federal Communications Commission reported in February that there were 241.8 million subscribers in the United States in 2006. It also tracked text messages, which reached an all-time peak in December 2006, when 18.7 billion messages were exchanged.
In Hawai'i, the FCC found an eager legion of users: Slightly more than 1 million subscribers in a population of 1.2 million people.
The proliferation of these personal communication devices are changing the way people relate to each other. In practically every social setting, from the classroom to the dinner table, they have the power to intrude as often as fingers can tap.
Jen Ozawa, a mother of three young children who says she's "guilty of texting and browsing the Web in public," has often seen the peculiar communication breakdown that the devices create.
"I find people don't have a sense of people right in front of them," she says. "You are more tempted to sit and text someone than carry on a polite conversation with the person in front of you."
That behavior is part of the motivation that has kept Cheryll Aldridge from using her iPhone to text friends. An information technology specialist at Kapi'olani Community College, Aldridge uses the phone to communicate, often by e-mail, with her husband, who has his own iPhone. Her goal is to prevent technology from creating bad manners, but she admits occasionally crossing the line.
"I do use my phone as an excuse not to have a conversation," she says. "Say I am in an elevator or at a bus stop, it's like being on the phone and not having to communicate with people around me. I appear busy."
SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS
David Lassner, vice president for information technology at the University of Hawai'i, says his iPhone, like the Blackberry he had before it, is an important tool. But don't blame the technology, he says.
"It is a matter of personal discipline to not let it be intrusive," he says.
Sometimes the smartphones, like laptops, can siphon away attention from an important classroom discussion or meeting, Lassner says. At other times, the devices link their users with valuable information that a user needs immediately. A puzzled student can find information about something that was said only a moment before in a lecture, he says.
"That opportunity is really huge â€” again, if people manage it well," he says.
Lassner has his limits, though. He says he finds it annoying when people hold a smartphone in their lap at dinner "as if no one else can see that."
"I think we are at a time where social expectations are changing," he says. "Is that right or is that wrong? I don't know. It has to do with the expectations of the people at the time. If you are at the table and someone does that, do you think it is rude? I think that is part of what is happening in society at large."
Most likely, Lassner wouldn't enjoy a meal with L.P. "Neenz" Faleafine, a 37-year-old Web site editor.
At nearly every juncture in her day, Faleafine's fingers are dancing on her mobile phone keypad in an effort to communicate what she's doing to a circle of subscribers. She uses a pair of social networking services â€” Twitter and Britekite â€” that allow her to send out one- or two-sentence statements and photos. When she's at a restaurant, she'll send out a message that she's arrived, then take a photo of her meal and beams that out as well. More than 1,000 people are on the receiving end of her updates.
Her two children, ages 4 and 12, are so accustomed to this behavior that they often bemoan missed opportunities to take a photo of something.
"It cracks me up that they know," Faleafine says.
Knowing what your friends and co-workers will consider rude is the key to knowing whether it's acceptable to focus more on your smartphone than your surroundings, she finds. For example, Faleafine turns off her phone when she's visiting her mother or when she's in a meeting.
"You have to know your audience," she says. "It all depends on who you are with. If you have any inclination that someone is uncomfortable, don't do it or ask permission."
Any exceptions? Computer afficionados like herself.
"If I am with the local geek community, and we are at a meeting, and there is a speaker up there, and half the audience is looking at their cell phones or iPhones, I presume they are talking to the rest of the world and letting them know what the speaker is saying," she says. "I don't think they would think that was rude. Even if I was the speaker, I would feel a little bit honored."
'ALWAYS IN TOUCH'
It's unlikely that this will be an issue for the next generation. Instant communication is the norm, so don't take it personally, advises 30-year-old Jonathan Wong, who investigates new technology for possible classroom uses at Honolulu Community College.
"One of the trends of the younger generation is the whole social networking thing," he says. "You are always in touch with your friends. It's how the culture of young people is evolving these days. A text message to them is like an e-mail was to us about 10 years ago."
Wong, who is also a graduate student in business administration, uses his phone to take notes and has found himself on the receiving end of withering glares from teachers and colleagues. They usually fall silent when he shows them what he's doing.
"There is a generational disconnect for some who don't understand the technology," he says. "Kids are multitaskers. They can be taking notes and can be having a conversation."
Unfettered access to each other has created a greater sense of urgency in the digital community. Just ask Brown, the Kane-'ohe real-estate woman who says her iPhone changed her life.
She loves the fact that she can be anywhere and turn to her phone for help. But there's a downside that has nothing to do with elevator doors.
"Professionally, people have an expectation that they can get a hold of you at any time," she says. "So if you don't respond in an hour or two, they call you up and say, what's the holdup?"
It's a thought that makes her laugh out loud.
"You have fewer ways to escape."
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.

**BulkMeUp** · 09-15-2008, 02:37 PM

Toronto has those dead mans switches on the subway trains. But there was a hard lesson to be learnt. Several years ago a new train driver didnt bother about the red lights and drove through several lights before crashing into another train killing a few people. The switch existed but wasnt opeational as it wasnt being maintained due to cost cutting. Since then they are operational.. or so they say.

**BulkMeUp** · 09-15-2008, 02:38 PM

I dont get this texting thing either.... but then on the other hand my dad dosent get that email thing

**min0 lee** · 09-15-2008, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by BulkMeUp

I dont get this texting thing either.... but then on the other hand my dad dosent get that email thing

That is true, my daughter stays text messaging all day long, it seems like such a waste.

I keep telling her to just pick up the phone, she walks and texts at the same time.

**min0 lee** · 09-15-2008, 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by BulkMeUp

Toronto has those dead mans switches on the subway trains.

I'm surprised they relay solely on a human to stop a train.
They didn't he even slowed down on a yellow signal, if that system has a yellow signal.

**KelJu** · 09-15-2008, 04:13 PM

One of my best friends was a conductor. I asked him why they haven't switched over to computer guided trains, and he says a computer isn't as reliable as a person.

I have a hard time believing that. Also, not having an automatic kill switch on red lights seems pretty dumb to me.

**min0 lee** · 09-15-2008, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by KelJu

One of my best friends was a conductor. I asked him why they haven't switched over to computer guided trains, and he says a computer isn't as reliable as a person.

I have a hard time believing that. Also, not having an automatic kill switch on red lights seems pretty dumb to me.

We have those trains in NYC, they are called CBTC (computer based train control) and are being tested on the L line in Brooklyn.
You still need a human to man these trains.

In NYC the kill switch is called a Tripper.

I work for transit.

**Cgrant** · 09-15-2008, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

We have those trains in NYC, they are called CBTC (computer based train control) and are being tested on the L line in Brooklyn.
You still need a human to man these trains.

In NYC the kill switch is called a Tripper.

I work for transit.

wanna hook a brother up with one of those mta for life free passes?!? lol.. nice to meet someone who makes new york run!

so uh.. thanks!

**min0 lee** · 09-15-2008, 05:41 PM

The whole family wants one.

They can get on for free if I accompany them.

**Cgrant** · 09-15-2008, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

The whole family wants one.

They can get on for free if I accompany them.

Oh man its a sweet deal.. Do they still do the passes for immediate family? One of my college roomates mom worked on the board over there.. That was always the best way to travel... Free! Lol

**min0 lee** · 09-15-2008, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by Cgrant

Oh man its a sweet deal.. Do they still do the passes for immediate family? One of my college roomates mom worked on the board over there.. That was always the best way to travel... Free! Lol

I never heard about that, but then again I have only less than 2 years on the job.

**Cgrant** · 09-15-2008, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

I never heard about that, but then again I have only less than 2 years on the job.

Damn bro, well then just wait and see.. I know she was HIGH up there, and she had been around for like 20+ years.. Who knows, but Let me know if you hear anything.. I'm sure you always wanted to adopt a 21 year old right? LOL

**Mudge** · 09-15-2008, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by maniclion

Our local paper just ran a story about how people lose all awareness of their surroundings when texting....

I find in general that people are poor at paying attention.

**I Are Baboon** · 09-16-2008, 06:12 AM

omg that sux txtng while u do stuf iz bad. ppl r stupd.

**min0 lee** · 09-16-2008, 06:24 AM

Danny?

**BulkMeUp** · 09-16-2008, 08:04 AM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

That is true, my daughter stays text messaging all day long, it seems like such a waste.

I keep telling her to just pick up the phone, she walks and texts at the same time.

Whatever happened to those days when teenage girls kept yakking on the phone for hours.

I understand treating a text message like an email where you dont really expect an instant reply. But working it like a conversation makes no sense to me. Might as well call the other person and talk.

**BulkMeUp** · 09-16-2008, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

I'm surprised they relay solely on a human to stop a train.
They didn't he even slowed down on a yellow signal, if that system has a yellow signal.

I'm surprised at that as well. I thought they all would have something like the Dead Man Switch. Without that the train would have to crash to stop if the driver had a heart attack or something and was incapacitated.

**min0 lee** · 09-16-2008, 08:20 AM

The Dead mans switch is actually used in a different application, here's a brief description below.

In many modern New York Subway trains, for example, the dead man's switch is incorporated into the train's speed control. On the R142A the train operator must continually hold the lever in place. This was depicted in the movie and book The Taking of Pelham 123, in which a group of men hijack a New York City subway train for ransom, but because of the Dead-man's feature, cannot escape while the train is moving.

Mind you, this is what it's called in NYC.

Now the device I am talking about is installed along railroad tracks.
In the picture you'll notice a yellow painted T...that's the tripper arm.

well when a red light is on it also activates the Tripper arm, underneath every train there is an emergency brake device that when hit by the tripper it activates the brakes.

**MCx2** · 09-16-2008, 08:22 AM

I like text messaging. You're less likely to get busted for chatting while shitting.

**min0 lee** · 09-16-2008, 08:27 AM

I would never borrow your phone.

**BulkMeUp** · 09-16-2008, 08:30 AM

Originally Posted by min0 lee

The Dead mans switch is actually used in a different application, here's a brief description below.

ah.. i see.. interesting...

**BulkMeUp** · 09-16-2008, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by ReproMan

I like text messaging. You're less likely to get busted for chatting while shitting.

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