Three observers who say they were at the Chatsworth Metrolink station before last month's deadly train crash have asserted in interviews that a final, crucial railroad signal was green as the commuter line's engineer headed toward the collision point.
The accounts, including one from a station security guard and another from a retiree who says he was interviewed by a federal investigator, contradict a key preliminary finding by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The safety agency has said its evidence shows the signal was red when the Metrolink train, driven by engineer Robert M. Sanchez, barreled over a switch that merges two tracks into one and slammed into a Union Pacific train, leaving 25 dead and 135 injured.
Experts say it is common for investigators to get sharply differing witnesses' accounts during inquiries into catastrophic accidents. But the three witnesses were insistent.
"I saw the light was green. Everything seemed all right," said Chris Watson, 20, the station security guard. Watson said he was standing midway down the platform on Sept. 12 as Metrolink 111 pulled out of the station.
Bob Atkinson also said he saw the signal as the train departed. "That light was green," said Atkinson, 65, a retired movie projector repairman and train enthusiast who regularly visits the station and knew Sanchez. Another train buff, Chris Cassel, 56, said he was standing near Atkinson as they both looked down the track. "He had a full-blown green light when he left," he said. All three were interviewed by The Times this week at the station.
If the track signal was green, it would raise the possibility that a combination of factors were at work in the deadliest train crash in modern California history. NTSB investigators said earlier this week that the engineer had sent and received cellphone text messages about the time of the crash. But could he also have received a false signal that the track ahead was clear?
An NTSB spokesman said Friday that he could not comment on the witnesses' accounts. It was not clear whether federal investigators were pursuing or had ruled out the possibility that the light was green as Sanchez approached the fateful section of single, shared track.
"In many situations, witnesses will talk about diametrically opposed things," said Barry M. Sweedler, who spent 30 years with the NTSB as an investigator and administrator. "Maybe if you spoke to three others, they would say the opposite." But he also said he would consider the two rail enthusiasts to be more credible than an average observer because they're familiar with rail operations.
