Texting apparently responsible for L.A. Commuter train crash last month
As previously suspected, investigators looking into the cause of the crash of a commuter train in Los Angeles last month have discovered that the engineer – the guy who was supposed to be paying attention to the operation of the train – was involved in sending text messages.
A commuter train engineer sent a cell phone text message 22 seconds before his commuter train crashed head-on into freight train in Southern California last month, killing 25 people, federal investigators said Wednesday.
Cell phone records of Robert Sanchez, who was among the dead, show he received a text message a minute and 20 seconds before the crash and sent one about a minute later, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a news release.
The finding led Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman to announce an emergency order prohibiting use of personal electronic devices by rail workers operating trains and in other key jobs. The order must be published in the Federal Register to take effect. Spokesman Rob Kulat said that would happen “soon.” California regulators have already enacted a ban.
It is staggering to me that something like this needs to be made into some sort of ordinance. That a person responsible for the operation of a massive machine moving at significant rates of speed in a system that puts them into potential collisions with other similar machines should need to be told that he can’t be heads-down, thumbing away at some phone keypad is just damned silly. And any idiot who would do such a thing, anyway, is someone who shouldn’t be at the controls of a train.
Those of you doing this kind of thing at the steering wheels of your cars had better take note and knock it the hell off.
