Metrolink News/Alerts

[Gokhan]

Sept 15, 2008 12:44:29 GMT -8 jejozwik said:

why is there such a need to rely on more and more equipment that can fail one day when the fairly obvious coarse of action would be to double track? i really dont understand the logic?

jejozwik, the logic is simply that the need for automatic train-control systems has nothing to do with single-track vs. double-track. These kind of accidents can happen even in double-track sections, such as the one in Placentia, where a freight train ran a red light and rammed into a standing Metrolink train, killing two. Or as it happened when an engineer named Ricky Gates ran his locomotives past a red signal and out onto the path of a 130 MPH Amtrak train.

The only way to prevent such accidents, as well as terrrorism incidents, is to install automatic train-control systems.

See also the following:

Here is some background, feel free to distribute it.

The FRA and the RRs put a ban on "unauthorized electronic devices" after Ricky Gates ran his locomotives past a red signal and out onto the path of a 120 MPH Amtrak train, killing a bunch, one Sunday at Chase, MD, in the 80s. It was alleged that he was watching a football game on a portable TV. (Of course he was famously high on cocaine that day too, leading to the current drug rules and tests.)

They then banned cell phone use by a person operating a moving train (and also operating a moving Hy-Rail car) after a BNSF train crew was found to be engaged in conversations as they passed signals at danger and ran into another freight train, killing everyone on both trains (4). Some RRs banned cell phones from locomotive cabs, but this was later relaxed when they found that crews relyed on them to contact dispatchers and supervisors, but the ban on using them while running equipment is still universal.

It seems stupid that texting is permitted by operators of California automobiles and is not explicitly banned by railroad operators.....yet. Texting takes your eyes off of the outside situation, on a highway or a RR. Some texting can be done with devices that are not cell phones, but of course most text messages are simply sent/received with cell phones.

I expect that the FRA will finally agree to a reasonable performance standard for an "overlay" system of train safety, and will mandate its use within a very few years. Good prototypes are out there, I have seen one demonstration on the BNSF back east. These systems rely on GPS systems to locate the train and compute its speed, and rely on radio links to know the signal aspects ahead of the train. They have an embedded database of the route so they know the grades, signal locations, maximum speed, (and temporary speed restrictions) of the route and can compute the safe braking distance to each signal or speed restriction. If the engineer fails to initiate braking in time the system takes over and stops the train, and this is a reportable event, but not a catastrophe. If the system malfunctions the engineer must notify the dispatcher, but can continue to run on the authority of the traditional signals, warrents, bulletins, and timetable speeds.

There are two problems with these "overlay" systems.

First, they are not 100% reliable because GPS coverage has lapses and radio transmissions have interference (e.g. inside tunnels, static that you hear on radios). But they are about 99.999% reliable. The chance that you would have an overlay system failure at the 1:1,000,000 time that a crew overlooks a restriction is very, very remote, far less likely than just relying on the human perception-reaction to a signal. But this lack of reliability has caused to FRA to stall and wish for perfection. The FRA's ideal is the reliability of a hard-wired signal circuit, as close to 100% as any of man's creations. This just isn't possible, but the FRA can't seem to accept this.

Second, I have heard from several sources that the brotherhoods are very wary of any new train control system. They fear the loss of jobs by train service employees (if a train could be automated) and the loss of jobs by signalmen (if the system took over completely and no wayside signals were needed). In practice, I don't see either happening. Even if the wayside signals disappeared (like on High Speed Rail) you still need the train detection circuits, the logic circuits, and the transmission systems to get the signal information to/from the trains and the dispatchers. So labor is divided, they of course want a safer work environment but they fear job losses with new technology.

Thinking about these technical issues is sure easier than thinking about the human tragedies.

And this situation should stimulate discussion of liability caps. The threat of the hundreds of multi-million dollar payouts may effectively block any future expansion of public transport by rail unless a cap is in place. The people's money simply cannot be placed at this level of risk. People need to be "made whole" but their lawyers should not get 40% of their awards, and their awards should not be obscene (admittedly hard to define). The threat of this liablity exposure is the reason that the freight railroads are very, very cautious (or hostile) to new commuter rail projects. It may also make it impossible for private companies to get enough insurance to bid on operating contracts.

This liability threat could also be very bad for the environment; people will have to continue using personal autos and buses, and never get to the efficiency and petroleum independence that Europe now has with their rail systems.

Regards,

Mike McGinley, formerly with Metrolink

[fredcamino]

First, they are not 100% reliable because GPS coverage has lapses and radio transmissions have interference (e.g. inside tunnels, static that you hear on radios). But they are about 99.999% reliable. The chance that you would have an overlay system failure at the 1:1,000,000 time that a crew overlooks a restriction is very, very remote, far less likely than just relying on the human perception-reaction to a signal. But this lack of reliability has caused to FRA to stall and wish for perfection.

Just to play devils advocate... what was the real world reliability of the Metrolink Ventura Line without automatic train control? How well did the human perception-reaction to a signal work? Was it less than 99.999% reliable? If the line makes 11 trips per day, and has to navigate around possible head-on freight on each trip, and let's say it runs 300 days per year, and it ran for 16 years before this failure of the system that means that it failed 1 out of 52800 trips or 0.000018939% of the time.

[erict]

I wonder if Metrolink could work to restrict freight service on their own tracks during regular service hours (like in San Diego), that is if they even own this portion of rail?

[Gokhan]

Wow, this has come faster than anyone expected. Commissioner Mike Peevey, President of CPUC, is asking to ban cell phones and install automatic train-control systems immediately on all trains in California that use tracks in passenger corridors. No idea CPUC could be that swift. The Farmdale application is taking forever to be processed.

State agency calls for safety measures after Metrolink crash

As riders board trains again, a cellphone ban for train operators is proposed. Also, Metrolink spokeswoman resigns after she is criticized for attributing crash to an engineer's mistake.
By Jennifer Oldham, Steve Hymon and Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
4:45 PM PDT, September 15, 2008

The agency that regulates rail safety in California today proposed an emergency order that would ban the personal use of cellphones while operating a train in response to the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth that killed 25 people and injured 135 passengers.

Earlier in the day, the Los Angeles County coroner's office announced that a 26th person died today, but after reviewing their records determined the number of fatalities was still 25.

The president of the California Public Utilities Commission said he will also call on the Federal Railroad Administration to require additional train control safety measures and that the agency is also looking into the resignation of a Metrolink spokeswoman, who quit today after her superiors said she spoke prematurely in saying the crash was caused by an engineer's mistake.

"I would like to express our condolences to the family and friends of those involved in the Metrolink accident," President Michael Peevey said in a statement. "We are leaving no stone unturned in our investigation of this accident, including interviewing the former spokesperson for Metrolink who resigned from the agency, allegedly after her candor in assessing responsibility for the accident was questioned by her superiors."

The proposed cellphone ban comes in the wake of reports that Metrolink engineer Robert Martin Sanchez text-messaged teenage railroad buffs just before Friday's accident, in which the passenger train collided with a Union Pacific freight train.

"Some railroad operators may have policies prohibiting the personal use of such devices, but they're widely ignored," Peevey said. Our order would make it the law, and we'll go after violators. We owe it to the public."

Peevey also said that he will ask the federal rail agency to require automatic train stop systems immediately on all freight and passenger trains that share tracks in California. Such systems ensure that trains automatically stop at red signals, thereby avoiding collisions with other trains.

Peevey said in a statement that he has 10 experts on rail safety dedicated to the Metrolink accident investigation and that he is working closely with the federal rail agency and the National Transportation Safety Board. The utilities commission has broad authority to issue safety orders or regulations governing rail carriers in California.

Today, commuters returned to Southern California's rails after the deadly train collision. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Metrolink officials tried to assure people that riding the train is still safer than navigating local freeways.

Also today, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell resigned after Metrolink board members told The Times she spoke prematurely in saying Friday's crash was caused by an engineer's mistake. And U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer today called on the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee to hold an emergency hearing on the collision.

"While the National Transportation Safety Board is beginning its own investigation into this terrible tragedy," Boxer wrote in a letter, "I believe it is imperative that Congress immediately examine the details of this incident so that we may take appropriate action to prevent another tragedy of this magnitude."

In Los Angeles, Tyrrell said she had spoken with Metrolink's chief executive and was authorized to release the basic facts of the investigation before announcing Saturday that the Metrolink driver had run a red light on the rail line shared by Union Pacific freighters.

She said today that she was upset by the statement that Metrolink board Chairman Ron Roberts made to The Times on Sunday -- that her statement Saturday was premature -- and that he made to the Wall Street Journal that she was not authorized to make a statement blaming the engineer, who was identified today by the coroner's office as Robert Martin Sanchez, 46, of La Crescenta.

"I felt the damage to my reputation is so great, I could not work for these people anymore," she said. "If I am not mistaken, the engineer blew through a light. The media got on top of this story, apparently so unaccustomed to a public agency telling the truth, they started to spin it that we were trying to throw all the blame on the engineer.

"Metrolink is responsible for the engineer, they are responsible for overseeing the contractor. Talking about the human-error aspect of this is not a way to shift blame from Metrolink. Metrolink is still the responsible party to oversee the contract with the engineer and the conductors."

She said Metrolink's chief executive, David Solow, gave her the authority to make statements to the media Saturday about the cause of the crash.

"He told me to go ahead. . . . I felt that when my reputation was called into question in the national media by Ron Roberts that there was no going back as far as I was concerned," she said. "I believe that David Solow's decision to allow us to go public without waiting for the NTSB to point the finger was a brave and honorable thing to do. We have a basic difference here that can't be resolved. I see no way I can represent them and maintain my own standards. They are free to conduct their own business as they see fit."

As that controversy played out, Villaraigosa joined commuters this morning at the Chatsworth train station to try to reassure people about taking the train and that safety is Metrolink's first priority.

"I want to dispel any fears about taking the train," he said. "Safety has to be our No. 1 concern. Taking the train is still the safest option for commuters."

The vice chairman of the Metrolink board, Keith Millhouse, joined Villaraigosa at the train station. Millhouse, a Moorpark councilman, said he had friends aboard the Ventura County-bound train who were killed and others who were seriously injured.

"We will do everything possible to find out what happened and fix it," he said.

Commuter Barbara Copelof, a supervisor for a credit union in Glendale, took the train from the Chatsworth station this morning, saying she wanted to overcome her fear after Friday's crash. She clutched a newspaper clipping about commuter Roger Spacey, a 60-year-old Simi Valley resident she knew from riding the train who was killed in the accident.

"I needed to connect with my train people to make sure they were OK," she said.

The Moorpark station, usually bustling with commuters packing into crowded trains and sharing their weekend stories, was visibly quieter and emptier this morning as replacement buses shuttled people away to Chatsworth station, where they would board the train.

At one point, there appeared to be almost as many agency officials answering questions and handing out leaflets as there were passengers. A bus that pulled away at 6:25 a.m. was only about half full, and at times the platform was completely empty.

"People are probably still in shock, staying home from work," said Lillian Ford, a supervisor for Los Angeles County's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, saying train riders were a close-knit community. "We were expecting more people, but there isn't. It's very calm."

Commuters boarding the temporary shuttle buses said they were shaken up, but still felt riding the train was a safer alternative to taking the freeways.

Rick Heckler, a 10-year Metrolink rider, said he typically takes the 111 home, but missed the train involved in last Friday's crash when he had to respond to a memo at the office. But despite his near miss, Heckler, a contract project manager for the Metropolitan Water District, said he was committed to taking Metrolink.

"It's still safer to be on the train than it is to be on a freeway," he said.

Patricia Whitlock, sitting next to Heckler on a bus bound for Chatsworth, said she was "just as comfortable as ever" riding the train. "Mistakes happen and tragedies happen, but you've got to keep going," said Whitlock, who has been commuting via Metrolink for four years to her job in Burbank.

Whitlock greeted and embraced fellow commuter Gloria Hoshiko just as the bus took off. Both Whitlock and Heckler said people all knew each other well on these trains, and Heckler said some even gather socially outside of the commute.

Cal State Northridge student Sumio Ueda, 40, had just started taking the train twice a week at the beginning of this fall semester and said he was concerned about his commute.

"It was really terrible, yes, it makes me worried," Ueda said.

The MTA provided eight buses this morning for commuters, and had four more standing by, said George Trudeau, assistant transportation manager for the MTA in the San Fernando Valley.

"Usually, when things like this happen over the weekend, people make other arrangements. They have had two days to plan for it," Trudeau said.

On the empty platform at the Moorpark station, two makeshift memorials with flowers, candles and stuffed toys had been created for the crash victims, with handwritten names of the deceased. "We will miss you Chris forever in our hearts. We love you, Godspeed," one message read.

The white Volkswagen Beetle belonging to crash victim Maria Elena Villalobos sat in the parking lot of the Moorpark station this morning. A bunch of sunflowers, daisies and lilies were arranged on the hood near the windshield.

On the back window, someone had scribbled in the dirt: "I love you pretty girl." A friend, who declined to give her name, showed up to make arrangements for the car to be towed. A truck arrived and took it away

About 8:30 a.m., Denise Horton arrived at the station and stood in front of a memorial dedicated to Allain "Buck" Buckley. She glanced at the candles, flowers and stuffed toys and blew a kiss. Horton said she had ridden the train with Buckley for eight years -- between 1992, when Metrolink service first began in Moorpark, and 2000, adding that they sat next to each other everyday.

"I just wanted to come to say some prayers," Horton said, adding that she no longer takes the train because she no longer works in Glendale. "To pay my respects. It's a terrible tragedy for the whole Metrolink family.

"It's a commuter family. You ride the train with the same people every day. You know them. You trust them. You cry with them when something bad happens. You look forward to riding with them every day," she said. "It's going to be tough getting on the train and not seeing people who you are used to seeing."

Volunteers from American Red Cross of Ventura County handed out leaflets to passengers boarding the bus, offering phone numbers that people could call for mental health counseling to help deal with the crash.

"Sometimes it will hit somebody later," said Mike Green, a Red Cross volunteer. "People get affected by these tragedies, and we just want to let them know counseling is available if they need it."

Federal officials investigating the crash are focusing on whether a signal that should have alerted the engineer to stop the train was working properly, and whether it went unheeded.

National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins said a computer reading indicated the last signal before the collision site was displaying a red light. But she said investigators wanted to make sure it wasn't a false reading.

The train passed four signals between De Soto Avenue and Nashville Street that, if working correctly, would have flashed yellow or red to warn the engineer to slow and stop.

The engineer, stationed at the front of the train, and conductor, stationed at the back, customarily call each other to repeat signals seen by the engineer, Higgins said.

Officials have listened to recordings and found no indication that the engineer and conductor exchanged information on the last two signals, one of which should have been flashing yellow and the other red. The investigators were unsure whether "dead zones" might have interfered with such communication.

Higgins also disclosed that the Metrolink train "blew through" a switch controlling a junction with a railroad siding closest to the accident site. A data recorder said the Metrolink train was traveling at 42 mph when it passed the switch.

NTSB officials have interviewed a Metrolink dispatcher based in Pomona who said he had set up the signals and the switch so that the Union Pacific freighter and the Metrolink train could pass without incident. But Higgins disputed a Metrolink assertion that the dispatcher had tried to contact the train about a potential collision course, a message that allegedly arrived too late.

"By the time the dispatcher realized there was something wrong, the accident had already occurred," Higgins said. She added that the conductor, who was seriously injured, called the dispatcher to notify him of the accident. The conductor had not been interviewed by her agency, she added.

A Metrolink spokesman earlier Sunday gave a different account, saying that a Metrolink dispatcher had been alerted to the potential crash by a computer signal and tried to warn the engineer that he was about to collide with a freight train. The spokesman said the dispatcher reached the conductor after the crash had occurred.

Boxer suggested today that Congress review recent legislation requiring implementation of positive train control systems by Dec. 31, 2018. Positive train control combines digital communications with Global Positioning System technology to monitor train locations and speeds. If engineers fail to comply with signals, the electronic devices automatically apply the brakes.

"In light of this tragic accident, I believe Congress should move up this timetable and consider additional rail safety measures," she wrote.

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Times staff writer Francisco Vara-Orta contributed to this report.

[nickv]

5:30 PM 9/15 Update:

Blood Drives:

To support the crash victims, ABC7, KLOS, KABC Radio, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the American Red Cross are organizing blood drives throughout Southern California on Wednesday, Sept. 17.

The donation process, from start to finish, takes about an hour. The donation itself is only about 10 minutes, according to the Red Cross.

Call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE to make an appointment with the American Red Cross.

Complete List of Blood Drives:

San Fernando Valley Locations
Red Cross Donation Centers
6338 Variel Ave.
Woodland Hills, CA 91367
6 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Los Angeles Locations
Parker Center-LAPD Headquarters
LAPD Auditorium  1st Floor
150 N. Los Angeles St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Wednesday, Sept. 17
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Orange County Locations
Red Cross Donor Center
1144 Rosecrans Avenue
Fullerton, CA 92833
6 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Ventura County Locations
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Air Force One Pavilion
40 Presidential Drive
Simi Valley, CA 93065
Wednesday, Sept. 17
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.


Source - KABC

---

A total of 26 people have passed on due to the wreck after an injured passenger passed on, the coroner reports.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined Metrolink commuters this morning to try to reassure them that riding the rails is still far safer than the negotiating the region's jammed freeways.

Soucre - LA Times

---

Denise Tyrrell, Metrolink spokesperson has resigned. Metrolink Board Chair Ron Roberts said Sunday that the agency's board hadn't authorized, or known beforehand, that Ms. Tyrrell would tell the media so soon after the crash that the Metrolink engineer had failed to heed a red-warning signal, which led to the fiery head-on collision between the commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles's Chatsworth neighborhood.

[jejozwik]

Sept 15, 2008 12:44:29 GMT -8 jejozwik said:

i posted this in the LAFD flickr page, but what kind of retrofitting can be done to the passenger cars to protect against the telescoping effect seen in this event?
looking over the photos, the engine car seemed do come away in a fairly good condition considering what happened. but the passenger car is completely annihilated....

any one have any ideas about this?
passanger car
engine

[bluelineshawn]

Sept 15, 2008 17:20:22 GMT -8 jejozwik said:

Sept 15, 2008 12:44:29 GMT -8 jejozwik said:

i posted this in the LAFD flickr page, but what kind of retrofitting can be done to the passenger cars to protect against the telescoping effect seen in this event?
looking over the photos, the engine car seemed do come away in a fairly good condition considering what happened. but the passenger car is completely annihilated....

any one have any ideas about this?
passanger car
engine

IINM cars manufactured since 1999 are already supposed to be built to prevent telescoping. I thought that I read somewhere on a message board that the car in the crash was built in 2002. I hate to say it, but the best bet might be to phase out the Bombardier Bi-Level cars.

And of course the Metrolink logo should be gotten rid of immediately.

[vnc]

The Entire Railroad Industry needs lots of improvements. Not just here in the Los Angeles. But in the USA. I am often hearing about derailments and accidents almost everyday or every other day. And alot of the problems is. the railroads themselves. I am often hearing about how bad The Union Pacific and CSX is with handling their own trains. Other Problems I hear is. Trains going dead on the Law (crews operating over 12 hours of Service), Not enough people to run them. Too many shipments getting lost or mishandle.


I think in order to ever really see anything get better with the Railroad Industry. We need to get all of our elected officials from the city all the way up to Congess and even the President. To demand for better and safer improvements to our Railroad Industry. So maybe we all better start writing our elect Officials on this.

[Gokhan]

More insight into this weird collision

Authorities identify Metrolink train engineer
By Amy Taxin
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:19 p.m. September 15, 2008

LOS ANGELES – Robert Sanchez seemed to be a loner, living in a simple home with four miniature greyhound dogs, neighbors said. The train engineer would come and go to work without saying much to those who lived near him.
Sanchez, 46, was the engineer on the Metrolink commuter train that collided Friday with a freight train. He and 25 passengers died and nearly 140 were injured because of the crash near suburban Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley.

His actions were called into question when a Metrolink spokeswoman said Saturday a preliminary investigation showed the engineer failed to stop the train at a red signal. The National Transportation Safety Board said the train failed to stop at the final red signal, but the agency continued to investigate why that happened.

On a narrow street in La Crescenta, a suburb nestled in the hills north of Los Angeles, two neighbors said they didn't even know Sanchez's name, or that he drove trains until television crews descended on the quiet neighborhood Saturday.

“Everybody is very friendly but he never really wanted to be,” said Jack Geer, 66, while washing his car outdoors in the sweltering afternoon sun. “He was a loner.”

No one answered the door Sunday afternoon at Sanchez's house. The small white house on a dusty, dirt lot stands in contrast to the other homes on the block that boast colorful shutters and neatly trimmed flower gardens.

Reporters left business cards on the stoop. The house was quiet, except for the sound of wind chimes ringing in an occasional breeze.

Michele Thompson, a retired dental office manager who lives across the street, said Sanchez lived alone in the house with four miniature greyhound dogs.

“He went to work, came home, in and out,” said Thompson, who was saddened by the news of the crash. “We never really saw him with people or friends.”

Federal investigators said audio recordings from Metrolink were missing the required verbal safety checks between Sanchez and the conductor in the seconds before the crash. The tapes show the pair called out and confirmed light signals along the route, but are missing that call-and-response for the last two lights the train passed just before the fiery wreck, said Kitty Higgins, an NTSB board member.

NTSB experts also want to review the cell phone records of two 14-year-old teens and Sanchez. The teens told KCBS-TV they received a text message from the engineer at 4:22 p.m. Friday. The wreck happened moments later.

Sanchez has had minor run-ins with the law. In 2002, he was accused of stealing video game consoles from a store in San Bernardino County, said his defense attorney Wilson Wong. He was charged with felony burglary but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge – misdemeanor grand theft – and served 90 days in county jail, which he was allowed to do on the weekends. He also was cited for three traffic violations between 2001 and 2005.

After the crash, a memorial tribute to Sanchez was posted on YouTube. The two-minute video showed footage of a Metrolink train and the words:

“Rob, from all us railfans. We love you. We will never forget you. Let your warmhearted soul RIP and in heaven.”

Associated Press Writers Greg Risling and Christina Hoag contributed to this report.

[wad]

Lawsuits stemming from this crash may reach as high as the billions, and Metrolink is only self-insured for $4 million, say news reports.

[kingsfan]

Metrolink is too important to So Cal transit to fail, but the potential liability costs associated with this accident are enormous.

Perhaps our Legislators in Sacramento should enact some sort of a State Settlement Fund, similar to that enacted by the Feds after 9/11. People need to be compensated for death and injury, but the Lawyers will bring down the entire public transit sector if not checked.

[erict]

I doubt Metrolink could be insured for only $4 million, unless that is $4 million per person. Every doctor I know is insured for $1 million or more per patient. I think the law is that the cap is $200 million per person (federal law I believe) for train accidents. If the amount exceeds that then the case would go to the Supreme Court.

[Gokhan]

This could even be a suicide; although, I find it hard to believe that a railfan like Robert Sanchez would do this. This collision makes almost no sense unless he had an heart attack. Perhaps it happened because he was playing with his cell phone. Very strange but hopefully we will find out eventually.

Warning signals were working, officials say

As wary commuters get back on trains, federal investigators sum up early findings in the fatal crash.
By Robert Lopez and Jennifer Oldham, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 16, 2008

Three signals that should have warned a Metrolink engineer to stop before hitting a freight train appear to have been working and visible prior to last week's catastrophic collision, federal safety investigators said Monday, hours after some anxious commuters returned to their usual trains.

"There were no obstructions to viewing any of the signals," National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins told reporters as she summed up the early stages of what promises to be a lengthy investigation into the crash that killed 25 people in Chatsworth on Friday.

Higgins said the Metrolink train ran through a red signal instead of stopping to allow the southbound Union Pacific freight train to pull onto a siding to allow the commuter train to pass. It then crossed a switching mechanism on the main track at 42 mph, so fast that it bent a switch, which had been closed to guide the freight train onto the siding.

Higgins said the safety board had subpoenaed cellphone records from Verizon Wireless to determine whether the engineer of the commuter train had been text messaging in the moments leading up to the head-on collision.

Metrolink's chief spokeswoman, Denise Tyrrell, resigned Monday after she was intensely criticized by superiors who said she had spoken prematurely in saying the crash was caused by the Metrolink engineer's mistake.

The coroner's office identified the engineer as Robert Martin Sanchez, 46, of La Crescenta, who was described by neighbors as a man who cherished his privacy but spoke lovingly about trains.

A man at Sanchez's home declined to give his name but said he was the engineer's older brother.

"My brother loved trains all his life," he said. "He died doing what he loved. You don't have any idea what we're feeling right now. We feel awful for the victims. I'm thinking about my little brother."

In addition to the 25 dead, 135 passengers were injured in the crash. Twenty-four remained hospitalized Monday, including four in critical condition.

Metrolink trains resumed service between Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and the Chatsworth station, just south of the crash site. Beyond that, Metrolink operated bus service to and from the Moorpark and Simi Valley stations. Higgins said it was her understanding that rail service over the crash site would resume this afternoon.

"It's creepy," Robin Leftwich said Monday afternoon as Train 111 -- the same line that crashed -- pulled into a quiet Glendale station on its way to Chatsworth. Leftwich, an attorney who rides Metrolink every day between Chatsworth and Union Station, noticed that no regular passengers were getting on. "Normally, so many people get on here," she said.

Because she gets off at Chatsworth, Leftwich had left the train Friday moments before it crashed. She found out about the crash when her husband called her, and she turned on her TV. "Oh my God, that's the car I was in!" she exclaimed. "It must be 111."

Earlier Monday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined morning commuters at the Chatsworth train station to try to reassure them.

"I want to dispel any fears about taking the train," he said. "Safety has to be our No. 1 concern. Taking the train is still the safest option for commuters."

The vice chairman of the Metrolink board, Keith Millhouse, joined Villaraigosa. Millhouse, a Moorpark councilman, said he had friends aboard the Ventura County-bound train who were killed and others who were seriously injured.

"We will do everything possible to find out what happened and fix it," he said.

As she waited to board the train, Barbara Copelof, a supervisor for a credit union in Glendale, clutched a newspaper clipping about Roger Spacey, a fellow commuter who was killed in the crash. By returning to the train, she said, she hoped to overcome her fear. Also, she said, "I needed to connect with my train people to make sure they were OK."

The Moorpark station, usually bustling with commuters, was quieter and emptier as buses shuttled people to Chatsworth. Two makeshift memorials with flowers, candles and stuffed toys had been created for the crash victims, with handwritten names of the deceased.

"We will miss you Chris forever in our hearts. We love you, Godspeed," one message read.

A white Volkswagen Beetle belonging to crash victim Maria Elena Villalobos sat in the parking lot, sunflowers, daisies and lilies arranged on the hood. On the back window, someone had scribbled in the dust: "I love you pretty girl."

Rick Heckler, a 10-year Metrolink rider, said he typically takes the 111 home but missed it Friday when he had to respond to a memo at his office. Despite his near miss, Heckler, a contract project manager for the Metropolitan Water District, said he was committed to taking Metrolink.

"It's still safer to be on the train than it is to be on a freeway," he said.

In the first regulatory response to the accident, the head of California's rail safety agency proposed an emergency ban on the use of personal cellular devices by those operating trains in the state. Although some rail lines may have policies prohibiting the private use of wireless devices by train personnel, "they're widely ignored," said Michael R. Peevey, president of the state Public Utilities Commission.

"Our order would make it the law, and we'll go after violators," he said.

Utilities commission spokeswoman Susan Carothers said Peevey's proposal, to be voted on Thursday, was a "precautionary measure" and not a signal that cellphone use by the engineer contributed to the tragedy. "We've not made any conclusion regarding the cause," she said.

Peevey also called on the Federal Railroad Administration to adopt automated train control systems that some experts say could have prevented the head-on collision. Automated train-stopping technology and more complex systems that take over operational control of trains in dangerous situations are needed, Peevey said.

"These safety measures are especially important in Southern California, which has a very high number of commuter trains that share tracks with freight trains," he said.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer suggested that Congress review legislation requiring installation of automated control systems by Dec. 31, 2018.

"In light of this tragic accident, I believe Congress should move up this timetable and consider additional rail safety measures," she wrote in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee.

In the first legal action instigated by the crash, the parents of a 19-year-old Cal State Northridge sophomore filed a claim Monday alleging that the rail system was negligent in having failed to use available safety systems that might have prevented the collision.

Aida Magdaleno, the daughter of farmworkers who was the first in her family to go to college and aspired to become a social worker, was among the 25 killed.

No damages were specified in the claim, which under California law must precede the filing of a lawsuit.

The deadliest train crash in Metrolink's short history promises also to be the costliest and is likely to test the legality of a $200-million cap Congress imposed on a railroad's liability for any single accident. Lawyers who represent victims alleging negligence by railroads warn that the number of victims from Friday's crash heralds a level of potential damage claims that could easily exhaust that figure, if typical awards for wrongful death and catastrophic injury are granted. In that event, a constitutional challenge to the cap would be likely.

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Times staff writers Rich Connell, Mitchell Landsberg, Sam Quinones and Carol Williams contributed to this report.

[dane]

Sept 16, 2008 3:33:55 GMT -8 wad said:

Lawsuits stemming from this crash may reach as high as the billions, and Metrolink is only self-insured for $4 million, say news reports.

Here is a good primer on this issue from Bloomberg News:

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The California commuter train crash that killed 26 people may test a 1997 U.S. law capping passengers' damage claims in railroad accidents at $200 million.

The Sept. 12 collision between a Metrolink train and a Union Pacific Corp. freight train in Los Angeles was the worst U.S. passenger rail accident since before the liability limit became law as part of a bill reauthorizing Amtrak, the national passenger rail system.

``It's hard for me to imagine given the number of deaths and injuries we know about so far that the cap would not come into play,'' said Glenn Scammel, a former Republican staff director for the House rail subcommittee who helped write the 1997 law. ``The cap is almost certainly going to be an issue.''

The $200 million limit is for ``the aggregate allowable awards to all rail passengers,'' including punitive damages, from any single passenger rail accident, according to the text. Scammel said the law covers all rail carriers, not just Amtrak.

Metrolink's preliminary investigation found that the commuter train's engineer failed to follow a signal directing him to stop to allow the freight train to pass, a spokeswoman said on Sept. 13.

The trains collided head-on, with more than 130 people hurt in addition to those killed. The number of fatalities rose to 26 when one of the injured died, Lieutenant Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said today.

Professor's Viewpoint

Metrolink may be better off establishing a compensation fund than testing the damages cap in the courts, said Georgetown University Law Center professor Heidi Li Feldman, whose specialties include tort law and complex litigation.

``They would nip litigation in the bud by creating a compensation scheme that is generous enough to adequately compensate people for the very real losses that they've obviously suffered,'' she said in an interview from Washington. ``No one likes to litigate under conditions of uncertainty.''

Costs for Metrolink may rise should attorneys for victims of the accident challenge the damage cap's definition, because the issue hasn't been settled in court, she said.

Callers to Metrolink's press office were referred today by a recorded message to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the crash inquiry. A message left for board spokesman Terry Williams wasn't immediately returned.

The rail agency's spokeswoman, Denise Tyrrell, resigned after being criticized by executives for her comments about the crash's cause, the Wall Street Journal reported. Metrolink is owned by a group of southern California counties.

`Very Heavy Change'

Feldman said the 1997 law also made ``a very heavy change in the standard that is normally applicable to punitive damages,'' making it harder for victims of rail accidents to win such claims.

``No one ever wants to be the test case on this,'' she said. ``This may involve enough injury and death on the one side and a vulnerable-enough defendant on the other side that people may want to invoke this statute.''

Because the damage limitations apply to passenger-rail crashes, the 1997 law wasn't tested in connection with fatal accidents such as the 2005 Norfolk Southern Corp. derailment that ruptured a tank car carrying chlorine and killed nine people.

Freight railroads have asked Congress for liability limits on accidents involving chemicals.

Forty-five people died in a commuter train accident in Chicago in 1972, the New York Times said. An Amtrak crash in Mobile, Alabama, in 1993 that killed 47 people was the worst accident for the long-distance U.S. passenger railroad.

[Gokhan]

The railroads in US have been neglected since the Second World War, in favor of the highways and airline industry. This has lead to a sad decline of railroads in America. Finally, a wake-up call from a tragic accident prompts a giant step in the modernization of railroads in the upside.

Legislation would push train collision technology

Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer cosponsor a bill to require 'positive train control,' which applies brakes if an engineer misses a signal. The investigation into Friday's Metrolink crash continues.
By Robert Lopez and Jennifer Oldham, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
11:19 AM PDT, September 16, 2008

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation today to speed the installation of technology to prevent crashes on tracks used by both freight and passenger trains, such as those involved in the Metrolink crash that killed 25 people in Chatsworth.

Feinstein and fellow California Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer, who cosponsored the bill, hope to pass the legislation before Congress recesses at the end of next week.

The legislation would force railroad companies to install "positive train control" technology that brakes a train if the engineer misses a signal or gets off-track, a Feinstein spokesman said. The technology would be required in high-risk areas where freight and passenger service mix by 2012 and in all other areas by 2014, said Feinstein spokesman Scott Gerber.

Both the House and Senate have passed similar legislation, but Feinstein's bill would take effect sooner and impose stiffer penalties, including $100,000 fines, for companies who fail to comply, Gerber said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti plans to introduce a resolution at today's council meeting supporting national legislation that would require train safety technology before 2018, according to Garcetti spokeswoman Julie Wong.

As the National Transportation Safety Board continued its investigation into the crash, officials said Monday that three signals that should have warned a Metrolink engineer to stop before hitting a freight train appear to have been working and visible prior to Friday's catastrophic collision.

"There were no obstructions to viewing any of the signals," NTSB member Kitty Higgins said as she summed up the early stages of what promises to be a lengthy investigation.

Higgins said the Metrolink train ran through a red signal instead of stopping to allow the southbound Union Pacific freight train to pull onto a siding. It then crossed a switching mechanism on the main track at 42 mph, so fast that it bent a switch, which had been closed to guide the freight train onto the siding.

Higgins said the safety board had subpoenaed cellphone records from Verizon Wireless to determine whether the engineer of the commuter train had been text-messaging in the moments leading to the head-on collision.

Metrolink's chief spokeswoman, Denise Tyrrell, resigned Monday after she was intensely criticized by superiors who said she had spoken prematurely in attributing the crash to the Metrolink engineer's mistake.

The coroner's office identified the engineer as Robert Martin Sanchez, 46, of La Crescenta, who was described by neighbors as a man who cherished his privacy but spoke lovingly about trains.

A man at Sanchez's home declined to give his name but said he was the engineer's older brother.

"My brother loved trains all his life," he said. "He died doing what he loved. You don't have any idea what we're feeling right now. We feel awful for the victims. I'm thinking about my little brother."

In addition to the 25 dead, 135 passengers were injured in the crash. Twenty-four remained hospitalized Monday, including four in critical condition.

Metrolink trains resumed service Monday between Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and the Chatsworth station, just south of the crash site. Beyond that, Metrolink operated bus service to and from the Moorpark and Simi Valley stations.

In the first regulatory response to the accident, the head of California's rail safety agency proposed an emergency ban on the use of personal cellular devices by those operating trains in the state. Although some rail lines may have policies prohibiting the private use of wireless devices by train personnel, "they're widely ignored," said Michael R. Peevey, president of the state Public Utilities Commission.

"Our order would make it the law, and we'll go after violators," he said.

Utilities commission spokeswoman Susan Carothers said Peevey's proposal, to be voted on Thursday, was a "precautionary measure" and not a signal that cellphone use by the engineer contributed to the disaster. "We've not made any conclusion regarding the cause," she said.

Peevey also called on the Federal Railroad Administration to adopt automated train control systems that some experts say could have prevented the head-on collision. Automated train-stopping technology and more complex systems that take over operational control of trains in dangerous situations are needed, Peevey said.

"These safety measures are especially important in Southern California, which has a very high number of commuter trains that share tracks with freight trains," he said.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer suggested that Congress review legislation requiring installation of automated control systems by Dec. 31, 2018.

"In light of this tragic accident, I believe Congress should move up this timetable and consider additional rail safety measures," she wrote in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee.

In the first legal action instigated by the crash, the parents of a 19-year-old Cal State Northridge sophomore filed a claim Monday alleging the rail system was negligent in having failed to use available safety systems that might have prevented the collision. Aida Magdaleno, the daughter of farmworkers who was the first in her family to go to college and aspired to become a social worker, was among the 25 killed.

No damages were specified in the claim, which under California law must precede the filing of a lawsuit.

The deadliest train crash in Metrolink's short history promises also to be the costliest and is likely to test the legality of a $200-million cap Congress imposed on a railroad's liability for any single accident.

Lawyers who represent victims alleging negligence by railroads warn that the number of victims from Friday's crash heralds a level of potential damage claims that could easily exhaust that figure, if typical awards for wrongful death and catastrophic injury are granted. In that event, a constitutional challenge to the cap would be likely.

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Times staff writers Rich Connell, Mitchell Landsberg, Sam Quinones, Carol Williams and Molly Hennessy-Fiske contributed to this report

[Gokhan]

Sounds like good simulations to me. My guess is that the two trains saw each other on that curve darn well for at least a 1,000 ft of distance between them.

Metrolink crash investigators run simulations

The National Transportation Safety Board is working to determine when the engineers on the two trains saw each other, and whether signal lights were visible.
By Robert J. Lopez, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:22 PM PDT, September 16, 2008

Federal investigators were conducting two key reenactments today to help determine why a Metrolink engineer ran a safety signal before slamming into an oncoming freight train.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were doing a "site distance survey" to know at what point the engineers on the Metrolink and Union Pacific lines first saw each other prior to Friday's devastating head-on collision that killed 25 passengers in Chatsworth, said NTSB spokesman Terry Williams.

Under the test, two trains drive up to each other, then slowly reverse course along the tracks until the two engineers can no longer see the other engine. Investigators then measure the distance between the two engines.



Investigators were conducting a second simulation, in which a Metrolink train would exit the Chatsworth station and drive past several warning signals, to help determine whether the lights were visible from the engineer's point of view, Williams said.

The tests will help answer a key question: How well was the Metrolink engineer able to see the lights before the crash?

"The question is did he see it, did he see it as something else or did he see it at all?" NTSB board member Kitty Higgins said of the engineer.

Higgins told reporters Monday night that a warning signal just past the Chatsworth Metrolink station was red, which meant the engineer had to stop the train to allow the southbound Union Pacific line to move off the main track and onto a siding to let the other train pass.

Instead, the Metrolink engineer ran the red light and raced up the main track at 42 mph.

As the investigation continued, public officials worked to prevent such catastrophic crashes from occurring again through tougher train safety laws.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation today to speed the installation of technology to prevent crashes on tracks used by both freight and passenger trains.

Feinstein and fellow California Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer, who cosponsored the bill, hope to pass the legislation before Congress recesses at the end of next week.

The legislation would force railroad companies to install "positive train control" technology that brakes a train if the engineer misses a signal or gets off-track, a Feinstein spokesman said. The technology would be required in high-risk areas where freight and passenger service mix by 2012 and in all other areas by 2014, said Feinstein spokesman Scott Gerber.

Both the House and Senate have passed similar legislation, but Feinstein's bill would take effect sooner and impose stiffer penalties, including $100,000 fines, for companies who fail to comply, Gerber said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti plans to introduce a resolution at today's council meeting supporting national legislation that would require train safety technology before 2018, according to Garcetti spokeswoman Julie Wong.

Officials said Monday that three signals that should have warned a Metrolink engineer to stop before hitting a freight train appear to have been working and visible prior to Friday's catastrophic collision.

[e-mail]
Times staff writers Rich Connell, Mitchell Landsberg, Jennifer Oldham, Sam Quinones, Carol Williams and Molly Hennessy-Fiske contributed to this report.

[jejozwik]

Gokhan, it seems all of these articles are just building atop one another. could you try to only post the newly added information to the article, rather then running up page after page of things we have already read?

[Gokhan]

Ok, truncated the tail.

[Gokhan]

More about Mr. Sanchez

Engineer in wreck: Warm to some, recluse to others
By THOMAS WATKINS – 11 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Around his neighborhood, Metrolink engineer Robert Sanchez was considered a recluse with four miniature greyhounds and a poorly kept yard. But among young train fans, he was something of a celebrity.

"He called them his teenage train buffs," next-door neighbor Bud Amelsberg said. "They would all yell at him as he rolled by."

Sanchez, 46, died at the controls of the commuter train that slammed head-on into a freight Friday, killing 24 passengers and injuring nearly 140.



Investigators looking into what went wrong in the final minutes of Metrolink 111 want to find out if Sanchez was text messaging a young train buff from his cell phone when he ran through a red signal and into the path of a Union Pacific locomotive.

Metrolink has said Sanchez caused the crash — the nation's deadliest train wreck in 15 years — but the National Transportation Safety Board is withholding judgment and said it could take up to a year to complete its investigation.

The NTSB subpoenaed Sanchez's cell phone records to review text messages that 14-year-olds said they exchanged with him in the moments before the wreck. The teens told KCBS-TV they received a text message from the engineer at 4:22 p.m. — a minute before the collision.

Rail enthusiasts, including one of the boys, have posted tributes on the Internet describing him as a kind, caring man.

A two-minute memorial tribute posted on YouTube less than 24 hours after the crash showed video of Sanchez in the cab of a Metrolink train and the words: "Rob, from all us railfans. We love you. We will never forget you. Let your warmhearted soul RIP and in heaven."

Sanchez had driven Metrolink trains since 1996, a spokeswoman said. He worked as an Amtrak locomotive engineer from 1998 to 2005, according to an Amtrak spokeswoman, who declined to give other details because of confidentiality rules.

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

Neither Metrolink nor Connex has released any details of his life, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday questioned his work schedule. She said he worked an "untenable" schedule of 11-hour days, five days a week in split shifts.

A glimpse into Sanchez's life reveals short stays in several western states, including Arizona, Oregon and Nevada, and a brush with the law in California.

He was accused of stealing video game consoles in San Bernardino County six years ago, said his defense attorney Wilson Wong. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor grand theft and was sentenced to three months in jail, which he was allowed to serve on weekends. He also was cited for three traffic violations between 2001 and 2005.

Sanchez lived in the modest La Crescenta neighborhood, a suburb nestled in the hills north of Los Angeles. His small white house on a dusty dirt lot stands in contrast to the other homes that boast colorful shutters and neatly trimmed flower gardens.

The easy smile and kind eyes in the burly engineer's driver's-license photo belies some neighbors' memories of him.

"Everybody is very friendly but he never really wanted to be," said Jack Geer, 66. "He was a loner."

When Sanchez spoke with his neighbor Amelsberg, the topic was often trains.

"He loved the trains, it was his life," Amelsberg said. But he said Sanchez became withdrawn after putting up a 5 1/2-foot fence, a purchase that perplexed Amelsberg because the lower fence Sanchez had previously was enough to keep his tiny dogs from getting out.

"He got quieter and quieter and for the last year, I never saw a thing," Amelsberg said. "His back yard is nothing but dog poop and weeds."

Neighbors saw him coming and going from work, but he was never with anyone else.

Though results from toxicology tests on Sanchez are pending, coroner's assistant chief Ed Winter said his body was ready for release.

Winter didn't know who was going to pick it up. It took three days to notify a relative about his death.

Associated Press Writers Greg Risling, Alicia Chang, Amy Taxin, Erica Werner, Christina Hoag and Solvej Schou contributed to this report.

[Gokhan]

From Ken Ruben

Tune to www.kfi640.com/ now (as of 5:45 PM)

John and Ken on KFI Radio (640 am) and their station news reporter, Eric Leonard, have been reporting on this extensively including the press conference by Kitty Higgins last night which I and others heard (on the show following John and Ken). I was able to contact several friends via cell phone to listen to the news conference.

The latest is that Mr. Sanchez might not have hit the brakes like the UP crew did (as I previously thought myself). This is from Eric Leonard about 45 minutes ago quoting Kitty Higgins. And one of the Surfliners this afternoon went through Chatsworth north (just on the radio that is with me).

P.S: If you are in the KFI area at the time of this e-mail, tune in immediately to 640 am, as John and Ken are going to have on the father of the teen-age "railfan", Nick Williams, who supposedly was texting or getting a text message from Mr. Sanchez.

[spokker]

For those of us unable to listen, what was said?

[Gokhan]

Didn't get to hear NTSB spokeswoman's full interview but she was saying that the UP train braked and emergency-braked and giving the times for them, and she was adding that the Metrolink train didn't brake at all.

They were also interviewing the father of the railfan, who got unfairly criticized for over the texting, as if he himself was driving the train.

They are covering this story thoroughly and tune in to the online broadcast if you have time.

[Justin Walker]

No braking at all strongly implies a medical incident. The event recorder will be able to tell us at if the controls were not touched at all after a certain point. It will also show if he sounded the horn at the crossings north of Chatsworth.

[spokker]

If the engineer had a heart attack what do you do then? Metrolink still to blame? What do they do, give all their engineers angiograms? Too much cholesterol and you're fired?

[Gokhan]

Just listened to the great coverage of Eric Leonard on KFI 640 while I was driving home.

Good news first: It looks like Metrolink will face $0 liability for the accident. The contractor, a French company, is assuming full liability according to their agreement.

The NTSB spokeswoman said that they were only able to partially analyze one of the Metrolink data recorders so far. These are the numbers:

Freight Train/Metrolink
Speed 25/42 MPH
Time after applying emergency brakes 2/0 seconds
Sight distance 1,000 feet
Metrolink -- Speed when passed red light (last signal of system of three --
50+ MPH, then slowed down to 42 MPH -- did not apply brakes.

The engineer was diabetic.

Another interesting note: There was a suicide on the same line a few days ago. A terminally ill man stepped in front of the train and smiled at the engineer just before he was killed by the train. They don't know if it's the same engineer since the records are currently protected. They say this could have devastated Robert Sanchez if he was the same engineer.

If Robert Sanchez was able to brake, the collision could still happen, but chances are that the effects would be much less devastating.

They didn't rule out suicide. Hijacking is currently ruled out because they didn't find a second body in the completely crashed engineer's compartment.

Metrolink was also criticized for having very old trains with weak chassises.

The throttle on the Metrolink trains they say is not dead-man's throttle but it's quasi-dead-man's throttle. The engineer needs to periodically touch the throttle; otherwise, it will gradually lower and come to zero within a minute or two.

Something happened between Metrolink's Engineer and Conductor September 2, 2008, (might have been suicide talk) -- they were working together since April -- Conductor had nothing but praise for Engineer.

[spokker]

Sept 16, 2008 19:39:54 GMT -8 Gokhan said:

50+ MPH, then slowed down to 42 MPH -- did not apply brakes.

The throttle on the Metrolink trains they say is not dead-man's throttle but it's quasi-dead-man's throttle. The engineer needs to periodically touch the throttle; otherwise, it will gradually lower and come to zero within a minute or two.

Sounds like these two could be related.

[Gokhan]

Sept 16, 2008 20:02:40 GMT -8 spokker said:

Sept 16, 2008 19:39:54 GMT -8 Gokhan said:

50+ MPH, then slowed down to 42 MPH -- did not apply brakes.

The throttle on the Metrolink trains they say is not dead-man's throttle but it's quasi-dead-man's throttle. The engineer needs to periodically touch the throttle; otherwise, it will gradually lower and come to zero within a minute or two.

Sounds like these two could be related.

It could definitely be. Although, the train was starting to go uphill and approaching a curve, and it also hit the switch and broke it just after the last red light. But in any case I don't think Robert Sanchez was capable of controlling his train, either physically or mentally.

I kind of doubt he had an heart attack. There is one mile distance between the station and the switch. He blew through the switch at 50+ MPH. If he had an heart attack early on, the train would never reach the switch, thanks to the quasi-dead-man's throttle (my term). If he had an heart attack in the middle, the train would have slowed down by the time it reached the switch, perhaps to 25 MPH. If he had the heart attack at the end, he would have already stopped at the switch.

I think this will all be figured out when NTSB figures out how to decode the two ancient black boxes of the Metrolink train completely. NTSB spokeswoman said that she lacked the full knowledge of the codes in these black boxes. Let's hope it was an heart attack.

One way or the other, this is really sad.

[Gokhan]

Interesting comment from a friend:

"I think the 'texting' if it was being done at that time, even phone company records would not show that, only when the message was sent, may have been used to divert the attention away from a suicide."

Let's hope that it was not a suicide.

[Gokhan]

From a person in New York who works for a railroad:

It's part of my reply to fellow railroaders about my theory of what may have happened. If the Metrolink engineer was indeed texting while waiting for the conductor to give the highball out of Chatsworth station, the act of texting may have caused him to forget about the signal aspect he was to operate under, namely the aspect of the signal he may have passed just prior to entering Chatsworth, (most probably a yellow indicating that the next signal, a home signal at the end of the siding, was an "all red").
________________________________________________

it was a UPRR freight. I heard reports that the freight crew both survived.
That local freight had just been upgraded to the new SD-70mac safety cab units. As it had been a local freight, until recently, they used to run with a lash-up of Dash 2's, probably SD-40's. Had they been operating those older units, they would have probably been killed too.

It is possible that this wreck may turn out to be a case of the MetroLink engineer forgetting about a prior signal aspect ("distant signal" approaching a home signal) that probably displayed "approach" (yellow or yellow over red) prior to making that last station stop. That kind of mental error was supposed to be prevented by Delay in Block ( D.I.B.) signs placed just downstream of a station platform so that an engineer of a departing train would see and remember to follow the applicable rules as he departed that station (call the signal to the conductor) and approach the upcoming home signal at the appropriate speed, namely, "approach" (medium aspect at MNR), proceed not exceeding 30 mph being prepared to stop at the next signal. Unfortunately, the MetroLink engineer was alone in the locomotive (like ours are too). However, it's no excuse as the conductor who is not on the head-end is still supposed to communicate with the engineer and confirm the signal aspect with him/her. Physical Characteristics Qualification on any given line requires that the conductor and engineer know which stations have the DIB signs. The DIB rules and signs originated from a combination almost head-on/sideswipe wreck back in the mid-90's between Amtrak's Capitol Ltd and a MARC commuter train in the push mode. 11 perished in that wreck.

The whole thing was tragic. I also do not know why the collision posts of the Bombardier double-decker (multilevel) did not prevent or reduce the severity of a telescoping incident with a locomotive that had a similar height profile. Especially on a curve where a major component of the collision forced the impacting locos outward relative to the radius of the curve. I would have expected the couplers to have held and the collision forces shoving the ends of the coaches off the track alignment, zig-zagging them just like the first several cars of the UPRR freight did.
I remember a wreck on Chicago's Illinois Central in 1970 when a set of old single level MU's rear-ended a new Gallery double deck MU. The single level MU literally acted as a piston, ramming through 3/4 of the rear gallery MU, killing over 45.

[Justin Walker]

Again, it doesn't really matter if he forgot the yellow signal during the station stop; a red signal at CP Topanga is completely visible from the station and it would be directly in front of him for about 90 seconds after he starts rolling until he reached it.