Metrolink Train Crash Update: Cell Phone Use Causes California to Seek Train Operator Cell Phone Ban

LOS ANGELES / CHATSWORTH, CALIFORNIA: Traverse Legal's attorneys continue to explore possible causes for the Metrolink train accident outside Los Angeles, California on September 12, 2008.  Lawyers looking into the matter are focusing on the allegation that the train operator, who was an employee of the company operating the commuter train system for Metrolink, Veolia Transportation, was using his cell phone at or near the time of the crash.  The Associated Press has now reported that California is now considering an emergency ban precluding train operators from using cell phones through California’s top rail safety regulation authority.

Our train accident attorneys have identified the following additional Metrolink train crash information resources:

Los Angeles, CA: Engineer Had 4 Seconds To React In Deadly Train Crash
NBC Sandiego.com - San Diego,CA,USA
The force of the collision sent the locomotive of the Metrolink train back through the adjoining passenger car. Twenty-five people died and 135 were injured ...

Los Angeles, CA: A lot to say about Metrolink disasters
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
In a 2002 accident that eerily resembles last week's tragedy, a Metrolink train travelling through Placentia collided with a freight hauler on the same ...

Los Angeles, CA: Metrolink Engineer Texting With Teen Moments ...
LOS ANGELES - FOXNews.com - Report: The engineer of the Metrolink train that crashed in a head-on collision near Chatsworth, California, was chatting with a teenager moments ...

"Some railroad operators may have policies prohibiting the personal use of such devices, but they're widely ignored," Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, said Monday. "Our order would make it the law and we'll go after violators. We owe it to the public." ... The collision between the Metrolink train and a Union Pacific freight train killed 25 people and injured 138 people — the deadliest rail disaster in the U.S. in 15 years. Investigators did not find a cell phone belonging to Robert Sanchez in the wreckage, but two teenage train buffs who befriended him told KCBS-TV that they received a text message from him a minute before the crash... Higgins also said tests at the crash site showed the signals are working properly and there were no obstructions that may have prevented the engineer from seeing the red light. "The question is, did he see it as red?" Higgins said. "Did he see it as something else? Did he see it at all?"

In exploring what appears to be clear negligence on behalf of both Metrolink and Veolia Transportation, issues surrounding training, systems management, rail signals, commuter train dispatch protocol and equipment are all being explored. 

Comments

[Train Signal Sequence]

When a train leaves a station it is governed at Restricting speed until the next signal indication is visible. This rule came about after an accident on NJT if I recall correctly. That would suggest one of two scenarios. EITHER:

A train leaves a station at a speed in excess of Resticting (i.e. a speed that allows a safe stop within half the distance of vision, not exceeding 20mph ) and then passes a signal displaying a stop indication.

OR

A train passes a signal displaying an approach indication (20MPH) and then goes on to pass a signal displaying a stop indication.

[Trains & Cell Phones]

I do not agree with you saying texting at a Chatsworth station stop would not contribute to a missed signal. As we all saw in MD with the Marc/Amtrak Collision, a lot can happen between a distant signal and a home signal while Making a station stop... it takes focus off the stop signal ahead.

[Train accident attorney; personal injury; lawyer]

These are the exact kinds of actions that need to occur following a mass accident like this where victims are injured. The lawsuits that will be filed will provide further incentive for changes in the laws, changes in engineering, changes in training, changes in safety mechanisms, and changes in response time and medical attention.