Metrolink Engineer Sent Text Message 22 Seconds Before the Crash

The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that the Metrolink engineer involved in the September 12th crash was sending a receiving text messages right up to the moment of the collision:

A Metrolink engineer sent a text message from his cellphone 22 second before he collided with an oncoming freight train in an accident that killed 25 people and injured 135 others last month, federal authorities said today.

Engineer Robert M. Sanchez sent the message at approximately 4:22 p.m., just before his Metrolink train slammed into the Union Pacific freight train on Sept. 12 in Chatsworth, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a written statement. He also received a message about a minute earlier, the agency said.

The findings fill in key gaps into what happened moments before the crash and also indicate that Sanchez was conscious and feeling well enough to text -- even though the practice is strictly prohibited by Metrolink policy.

In all, Sanchez received and sent 57 text messages while he was responsible for operating the train the day of the catastrophic collision.

Safety experts said they were alarmed that Sanchez was texting during what is the most critical moment during the train's downtown-to-Ventura County run, when Metrolink trains often must pull to the side as freight trains pass by.

I had wondered previously if the engineer might have been disabled by a medical condition which resulted in him ignoring the stop signal and crossing the closed switch. It looks more and more like he was just distracted. What a shame.

The LA Times has another piece on railfans and how some people are questioning their hobby and whether they may have been responsible for the accident. I'm somewhat of a railfan, though I don't hang around train stations or send text messages to engineers. I do like to videotape unusual trains, or trains that pass while I'm waiting for the unusual trains. There's a surprising number of people who like to watch those videos and they can be worse critics than the people that watch my music videos.

Railfans are no different than fans of anything else. Some are more aggressive about their fandom, and some may even do dangerous things in pursuit of their hobby, but you'll find the same type of fanaticism in any hobby. It would be a real stretch to try and blame them for the wreck. Nobody forced the engineer to respond to their messages.