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Phone Records Sought As 26th Metrolink Rider Dies

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Los Angeles Times

Published: September 16, 2008

LOS ANGELES - Federal officials investigating a commuter rail collision that killed 26 people said they want to review cell phone records to determine whether an engineer blamed for running a stop signal before the crash may have been text messaging at the time.

Also, a 26th person who was in the Metrolink train collision in Chatsworth died Monday, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said. The news of the death came on the same day that commuters returned to Southern California's rails after the deadly train collision Friday in the Los Angeles district of Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley.

The National Transportation Safety Board experts are planning to review the cell phone records of two 14-year-old boys and the engineer after the teens told CBS2-TV that they received a text message from the engineer shortly before the crash.

The Los Angeles station said the teens were among a group of youths who befriended the engineer and asked him questions about his work.
NTSB member Kitty Higgins said investigators did not find a cell phone belonging to the engineer in the wreckage but would request his cell phone records, as well as those of the boys.

"We are going to be obtaining records from their cell phones and from the cell phones of the deceased engineer and will use our subpoena authority or whatever other legal authority we need and begin to determine exactly what happened and what if any role that might have played in this accident," she said.

Federal officials investigating the crash are focusing on whether a signal that should have alerted the engineer to stop the Metrolink train was working properly, and whether it went unheeded. Higgins said a computer reading indicated the last signal before the collision site was displaying a red light. But she said investigators wanted to make sure it wasn't a false reading.

Higgins also disclosed that the Metrolink train "blew through" a switch controlling a junction with a railroad siding closest to the accident site. A data recorder said the Metrolink train was traveling at 42 mph when it passed the switch.

Also on Monday, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell resigned after Metrolink board members said she spoke prematurely in saying Friday's crash was caused by an engineer's mistake.

And Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., called on the chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee to hold an emergency hearing on the collision.

On Monday, Boxer suggested that Congress review recent legislation requiring implementation of positive train control systems by Dec. 31, 2018. Positive train control combines digital communications with GPS technology to monitor train locations and speeds. If engineers fail to comply with signals, the electronic devices automatically apply the brakes.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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