NTSB declares official causes of Chatsworth crash: text messaging and lack of automatic braking system

The official probable causes of the Chatsworth Metrolink disaster were  the failure of the commuter rail engineer to comply with a red signal because he was engaged in prohibited cellphone text messaging, coupled with the lack of a train collision-avoidance system, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded today.

The Metrolink engineer "compromised his ability to observe and appropriately respond" to the red signal, according to formal findings adopted by the board.

The findings also say eyewitness accounts that the light was green were not reliable.

The board’s hearing ended shortly before noon Pacific time.

According the board, a practice heavily used in the rail industry -- field testing to enforce compliance with rules -- was "inadequate" to detect and deter improper use of cellphones and other wireless devices in train control cabs.  

Installation of video cameras focused on train operators would help deter cellphone use by crews, board members agreed.

"We know this behavior is widespread and it's getting more widespread," chairwoman Deborah Hersman said.

"Something has to be done across the nation to discourage this type of behavior," added board member Robert L. Sumwalt.

-- Robert J. Lopez and Rich Connell 

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NTSB chairwoman faults engineer's 'egregious' text messaging in Chatsworth crash

Comments

[Ronin]

Sounds like they don't like the evidence the people who saw the "green" signal gave them. Of course, then they'd have to admit the track system isn't foolproof. I was a train engineer for eleven years and I know I had a few bad signals in CTC territory.

[mb]

Why in the world does the NTSB list 'lack of a collision avoidance system' as a contributing cause for this incident? The collision avoidance system is called 'the engineer'. While nice - avoidance systems - like backup cameras for cars - do not take the place of attentiveness, which is a clear requirement for operators of any transportation vehicle. In fact, reliance of any avoidance system to take the place of operator responsibility is likely to catastrophically fail.

[John O'Mahoney]

Interesting that I had to go to the NY Times to find details on the NTSB results. Their article today was three times the length of the LAT summary. It appears that operator error was the main cause of the tragedy. The operator "was supposed to notify a dispatcher by radio that he had seen signal indications. According to a tape of the radio transmissions, he had done so for several green signals and one yellow one, which warned that a stop was coming. But the recording did not capture him radioing that he had seen the last yellow signal or the final red signal."

That anyone would design a "safe" mass transportation system in which the sole responsibility for passenger safety rests ultimately on a single human being, astounds me. Commercial airliners have a co-pilot. Why not passenger trains? Alternately, lose time but save lives: this last stop is mandatory, you cannot continue without signal verification!

[LM]

Well, isn't it interesting that the NTSB, after jumping on the former SCRRA spokesperson, who candidly admitted operator error, only to be "squelched" by being fired, has come back full circle.

Some day, people are going to have to wake up and face reality. Same thing here. Operator error cost lives.

[StateCitizen]

I'm sure the 30 dead souls will be happy to hear that "Human Error" and "Poor Engineering" are the causes of the crash. That leaves out "Acts of God" and just pure "Bad Luck" I guess...

[JoeJackson]

Has anyone been fired for this? Last time I checked EQ is still on the payroll. The PTC system is a joke, they should call it ATS because that is what they are really installing. Let the money grab begin.

[MarcoSanchez]

To say that headline downplays the reality of this horrific, completely avoidable catastrophe is an understatement.

The story blithely remarks that the National Transportation Safety Board concluded the Metrolink engineer "compromised his ability to observe and appropriately respond."

The story goes on to outline the finding that the rail engineer, Roberto Sanchez, responsible for the worst death toll in Metrolink history, had done so because of the fact that he was texting when his commuter train rammed into a freight train at over 40 mph.

Oh, the story left out his name. Yes. The name Sanchez is not mentioned, nor is the fact of the cause of the deaths -- namely that Sanchez was texting pubescent boys. Somehow the Los Angeles Times failed to mention that Sanchez was a homosexual.

Can you imagine if a Christian pastor or Roman Catholic priest was texting potential converts while driving a locomotive? Can you see the screaming headlines about the horrible pain endured by those killed by the engineer's selfish act of texting while driving a train? Elvisnixon.com points out that if this was the case, the Los Angeles Times would clearly state the nature of the perpetrator and the recipients of his texts.
The calls for a ban on proselytizing the workplace would ring out from Pelosi, Obama and Reid. The Los Angeles Times downplayed fact that the killer was pursuing his sexually deviant appetites and this directly resulted in 25 deaths.

Why?