(The following story by Dug Begley and Ben Goad appeared on The Press-Enterprise website on January 22, 2010.)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The deadly 2008 Chatsworth rail crash was caused by an engineer distracted by sending a text message, but could have been avoided if the rail industry was more vigilant about safety, federal investigators said Thursday.
Two factors — the absence of positive train control and a lack of oversight in the cab of the Metrolink train — allowed the accident to take place, said Wayne Workman, lead investigator into the Sept. 12, 2008 crash.
The findings were released at a National Transportation Safety Board meeting Thursday in Washington.
The commuter train’s engineer, former Murrieta resident Robert Sanchez, failed to heed a red signal where he should have stopped and smashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train. Sanchez and 24 others were killed and 135 were injured.
Cell phone records from that day showed Sanchez sent a text message to a teenage rail enthusiast 22 seconds before the crash, and had planned to allow a teen to operate the passenger train later that evening.
While Sanchez’s actions led to the crash according to investigators, local and federal officials focused on installing positive train control, a system using computers and global tracking technology to stop trains if they are on a collision course.
“Sadly, it took this accident, and 25 more lives and an act of Congress to move this technology (forward),” said Debbie Hersman, chairman of the NTSB.
The NTSB also recommended train companies place cameras in train cabs so overseers can monitor safety and police engineers who are violating policies.
But pointing out the needs is the first step, investigators and Metrolink officials said. Millions of dollars will be needed in the coming months and years for many of the safety programs to be in place, and labor unions are challenging installing cameras in train cabs.
Embracing technology
Positive train control, sought since the 1970s by some rail industry leaders and federal officials, must be installed by 2015. The rule applies to most passenger rail lines, especially where passenger and freight trains share tracks, based on Federal Railroad Administration rules released earlier this month.
Hersman lauded the efforts to improve rail safety in the aftermath of the crash. In particular, she pointed to the Rail Safety Improvement Act. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both D-Calif, led efforts to pass the bill in October 2008.
Both senators said they were pleased with the NTSB’s conclusions, and said they would work with Metrolink to get positive train control in place.
“I am pleased that Congress fully funded positive train control projects this fiscal year,” Feinstein said in a statement.
But the stopping systems are not the only needs, she added.
“I believe it is important for each of these trains to have two people in the engine cab, and they should be monitored by cameras,” Feinstein said.
Metrolink officials said the federal assessment confirmed what they suspected.
“I can’t think of anything they said today that I didn’t agree with,” said Ron Roberts, a past chairman of the Metrolink board and Temecula councilman.
The agency promised hours after the Chatsworth crash to aggressively make safety a higher priority. Metrolink installed cameras in locomotives late last year, and put a second engineer in cabs along some routes.
“We realize we were completely understaffed for something that big…,” he said, referring to the crash. “Now we have a complete plan put together.”
Daunting Task
Metrolink, Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway — the three major rail companies in Southern California — have agreed to install positive train control in the Los Angeles area by the end of 2012.
Workman, the NTSB investigators said, the train systems remain committed to that deadline, but face large hurdles, particularly Metrolink.
“Very frankly, they have challenges for making that happen,” Workman said of Metrolink.
The system is expected to cost Metrolink $201 million to install on all agency-owned railroad tracks and to outfit all trains with the computers and tracking technology. Officials are still about $100 million short, based on estimates of future funding, Workman said.
Roberts said the Los Angeles area should be first in line for federal money.
“The funding is going to come to Southern California first because we have more of a problem than anywhere in the United States,” he said.
Southern California is one of the busiest rail corridors in the country, and the largest where freight and passenger trains routinely share tracks.
Installing the cameras has also worried the union that represents train engineers. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen sued Metrolink in October to keep the cameras out.
Thursday, union officials called the NTSB suggestion to install them in all trains “unnecessary and wasteful.”
Operator Error
Sanchez, investigators determined, had been working a split shift that included more than 10 hours of work over the previous 15.
The report released Thursday, however, found that fatigue did not contribute to the accident.
“Tragically, an instant message turned an ordinary commute into a catastrophe,” Hersman said.