California train operators prohibited from texting on duty

Regulators in California moved to ban text messaging by train engineers, one day after a deadly accident.

Travel Insurance News - 29/09/2008

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Investigators into the crash determined that the train’s engineer was text-messaging while at the controls of the train, leading to railroad regulators imposing an emergency ban on the use of cellular devices by anyone operating a train.

The emergency order was issued by California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and indicated that the order was necessary as there were no regulations in place regarding the use of cellular devices by personnel at the controls of a train.

The PUC oversees all of the traffic in California, and the president of the commission, Michael R. Peevey, stressed that the emergency ban was critical.

On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed that phone records they obtained documented that the train’s engineer, Robert M. Sanchez, received and sent text messages while at the controls of the Metrolink commuter train that failed to stop at a red signal on September 12.

The Metrolink train had 225 passengers on board when it collided with a freight train, after failing to stop. There were 25 fatalities and more than 130 injuries in the accident which occurred outside of the city of Los Angeles.

Sanchez, the train’s engineer, failed to apply the train’s brakes, resulting in the head-on collision. He was one of the fatalities in the crash, which was the worst U.S. rail accident since 1993.

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