(Bloomberg News circulated the following story by Angela Greiling Keane on October 2.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. regulators are forbidding railroad crews to use mobile phones and other personal electronic devices while operating trains following a fatal collision in California last month.
The Federal Railroad Administration announced the ban in an e-mail today. The move follows a Sept. 12 Los Angeles commuter- train crash that the National Transportation Safety Board said happened seconds after the engineer sent a text message.
While most railroads have rules and procedures that restrict use of electronic devices, the measures haven’t been effective, the rail agency, which regulates safety, said in the order issued today.
The head-on collision between the commuter train and a Union Pacific Corp. freight train killed 25 people, making it the deadliest U.S. passenger rail accident in 15 years, according to the NTSB.
Metrolink, the Los Angeles-area commuter service involved in the crash, already banned its engineers from using electronic devices in locomotive cabs before the accident.
The Federal Railroad Administration said other accidents this decade may have been caused by rail employees using such devices, including one in June in which a Union Pacific worker was struck and killed by a train after walking behind it while talking on his phone.
The regulator listed six other freight railroad accidents, including some that were fatal, dating back to 2000 that involved mobile-phone use.