By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Investigators of a Los Angelestrain wreck that killed 25 people are looking into reports thatan engineer blamed for missing a stop signal light may havebeen distracted by text messaging moments before the crash,officials said on Monday.
Three days after a Metrolink commuter train ploughedhead-on into a Union Pacific freight locomotive, the probefocused on operation of trackside warning signals and whetherthe Metrolink engineer may have failed to heed them.
Some 135 people were injured in the crash, more than 40 ofthem critically, in the deadliest U.S. rail tragedy in 15years.
A local TV station, KCBS, reported that a teenage trainenthusiast claimed to have received a cell phone text messagefrom the commuter train engineer about a minute before thecollision.
The National Transportation Safety Board is seeking toobtain cell phone records of the teenager and the engineer,said Kitty Higgins, a member of the board dispatched to thescene. The engineer, Robert Martin Sanchez, 46, died in thewreck. His cell phone has not been found, Higgins said.
NTSB officials have spoken to two teenage boys and theirfamilies, "and they've been fully cooperative," she added. Butshe declined to elaborate on those conversations.
"They're two young teenage boys who love trains, apparentlyrode the train and knew the engineer," Higgins told Reuters."And there's some issue about whether they were texting withhim, and that's what we're trying to track down."
A text message that appeared to have been sent about aminute before the crash by a person identified on the receivingcell phone as "Rob Sanchez Metro" said: "Yea ... usually @Camarillo," KCBS sister station KCAL reported on Monday.
Railroad operating rules bar engineers from using cellphones and other electronic devices, or even having them withinreach, while driving a train, a Metrolink spokesman said.
A Metrolink spokeswoman said on Saturday, the day after theaccident, that the engineer was at fault because he failed tostop at a red light. But NTSB and railroad union officials saidit was premature to draw such a conclusion.
Computer records of track warning signals showed they wereworking and that the last one before the crash was displaying ared light as the commuter train passed, Higgins said. Butinvestigators were physically inspecting the signals on Mondayto determine if they were functioning properly.
The Metrolink train passed through four warning lights asit neared the freight train. The crash occurred just beyond astretch of the main rail line where the commuter train usuallystops to wait for the freight train to pass it on a side rail.
The Metrolink engineer and the conductor, who rides nearthe rear of train, normally call each other by radio to confirmsignals the engineer sees.
Audio recordings of their transmissions gave no indicationthat the two exchanged information about the last two signalspassed before the wreck, but investigators had not ruled out aradio communication disruption of some kind, Higgins said.
The conductor was seriously injured in the wreck and hasyet to be interviewed, she said.
Investigators also will look into the possibility that theengineer may suddenly have been stricken ill, or that a glarefrom the sun may have obscured his view of the signals.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
