NTSB confirms Metrolink train operator Robert Sanchez had been sending text messages prior to crash

Attorney Alert:  Washington Metro Commuter Train Accident kills 9, inures dozens.

Metrolink Lawyers In Los Angeles, California Train Accident Continue to Investigate Crash:  Traverse Legal's attorneys have received information that all signal lights were operating correctly and that the Veolia engineer Mr. Sanchez ran two red lights that should have warned him of the approaching Union Pacific freight train.

Our metrolink lawyers are investigating the Metrolink Train wreck on behalf of clients who have retained our firm to represent them in this accident.

  The NTSB today confirmed that the confirms Metrolink train operator Robert Sanchez had been sending text messages prior to crash. A teenage train enthusiast claims to have received a text from the engineer minutes before the collision.  The two young teenage boys love trains, apparently rode the train and knew the engineer," said Kitty Higgins, a member of the NTSB. Sending texts while driving a train is a violation of operator Metrolink's policy but yet not illegal. The NTSB has failed to officially attribute cell phone use as a primary or contributing cause of the train accident, although laweyrs investigating the Metrolink train accident have little doubt that cell phone use was a factor.  (See NTSB statement below). Traverse Legal's lawyers are also looking into Metrolink / Veolia Transportation's policy of requiring back-to-back, split-shift workday that begin before dawn and end at 9 p.m., five days and 53 hours per week was a negligent policy contributing to the train crash. Sanchez would have been near the end of a 53 hour work week on Friday afternoon when his train sped through two red lights and collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train.

Sanchez worked five days of identical shifts: He began his day just before 6 a.m., worked until almost 9:30 a.m. and took a 4 1/2 -hour break before beginning a seven-hour shift at 2 p.m.

The National Transportation Safety Board today released the following update on its investigation into the September 12, 2008 collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth, California.

NTSB investigators asked for records of the Metrolink engineer's cell phone calls and text messages from the service provider. The Board today received some of those records, which indicate that the engineer had sent and received text messages on the day of the accident, including some while he was on duty.

The Safety Board will correlate those records with other investigative information to determine as precisely as possible the exact times of those messages in relation to the engineer's operation of his train.

The Board will provide further information on the progress of its investigation as it becomes available. The NTSB is also now investigating the Washington Metro Train accident which killed 9 and injured many more.  The Washington Transit system is old and it is unclear why safety systems did not preclude the wreck from occuring.

Comments

[California Train Wreck]

Sanchez had driven Metrolink trains since 1996 and had worked as an Amtrak locomotive engineer from 1998 to 2005.

At the time of the crash, Sanchez was employed by Connex Railroad, a subsidiary of Veolia Transportation that operates Metrolink routes.

Sanchez worked an untenable schedule of 11-hour days, five days a week in split shifts.

[Negligent Train Policies By Veolia]

The real question is what the train operator did the night and days before. By Friday, you would be very tired if you had one late night during the week. Also, the cell phone is only one possible distraction among many that might cause a train engineer to miss a signal. What other safety measures were in place. Did Veolia and Metrolink provide back-up to Sanchez if he happened to be distracted?

[Congress Tried To Reduce Hours]

Metrolink's top executive told Congress last year that proposals to increase minimum off-duty time for rail workers were unnecessary for commuter systems contending that fatigue does not affect safety.

Commuter train workers often work split shifts because of morning and evening peak passenger loads with interim rest hours.

How much sleep can a engineer get driving home for a four hour break. Naps make people sleepy. The 4 hour break argument is non-sense.

[Metrolink Train Crash]

Fatigue caused by the irregular and often long work schedules of train crews has been a persistent and deadly problem in the railroad industry despite decades of study. Safety regulators have called for measures that would require railroads to provide longer rest periods between shifts.

[Chatsworth Train Accident]

At 4:23 pm Friday, the trains, each traveling about 40 mph, slammed together on a curving section of track near Chatsworth. The force of the collision sent the locomotive of the Metrolink train back through the adjoining passenger car. ...