Metrolink Engineer Was Texting While On-Duty

Earlier this week, suspicions arose that text messaging may have played a role in the Metrolink commuter rail tragedy which occurred last Friday. A pair of teenagers told investigators they had been texting the Metrolink engineer, Robert Martin Sanchez, 46, on the day of the Metrolink commuter rail tragedy, and had in fact received a message about a minute before the accident, which left 25 people dead and 135 others injured.

The NTSB requested the engineer's cell phone records from Verizon Wireless, and on Wednesday they received some of those records. While they do not yet know if he was texting at or near the time of the accident, the records do show that Sanchez was texting the day of the crash, including while he was on-duty for Metrolink.

In a written statement, a spokesman for the NTSB said:

"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."

Also today, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is expected to meet at 10:30 PDT to discuss an emergency order banning cell phone use for rail workers. While many companies have such a rule in place, it is not a law, and this would close that loophole.

And frankly, as I've stated before, the fact that clearly, common sense should indicate that text messaging is a) pretty popular, b) pretty distracting and that, if people can't be relied on to do the "smart" thing (and they can't, apparently), then a ban is necessary.

Michael Peevey, president of the CPUC also said he would ask the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to require Automatic Train Stop (ATS) systems immediately on all freight and passenger trains that share tracks in California. With ATS installed, trains automatically stop when required at signals.

Finally, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is introducing legislation that would require ATS nationwide.

Obviously waaaay more to come.