Engineer in train disaster was texting on duty: NTSB Agence France-Presse

Published: Thursday September 18, 2008





Print This Email This The engineer of a train involved in a rail crash that left 25 people dead was sending text messages on his mobile phone during working hours, authorities said Thursday.



Local television CBS2 earlier reported two 14-year-old boys reported having exchanged messages with the conductor in the moments leading up to the accident -- an allegation officials said they would probe.



The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington said Thursday that "records ... 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," it added, pledging to provide updates on the investigation as it progresses.



One of the victim's families lodged a civil suit against the conductor's employer, Metrolink, after the local television channel reported that the conductor may have been text messaging when he missed the stop signal.



The deadly collision Friday in Chatsworth, north of Los Angeles, also injured 134 people and was the worst train accident in the United States in some 15 years.



Saturday, a Metrolink spokeswoman admitted that the conductor's error had caused the crash.



But on Monday, Metrolink board chairman Ron Roberts said that assertion was "premature," and the spokeswoman, Denise Tyrell, resigned.



The commuter railway resumed service Monday in parts of the suburban line affected by the crash. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa rode the first train between Chatsworth and Los Angeles to reassure riders of its safety.



(Note: Original AFP version confused engineer, conductor)



