Metrolink crash leads to ban on cellphone use by train crews
State regulators had been looking into such a restriction in the weeks prior to the Chatsworth collision, after two California train accidents in which cellphone use may have been a factor.
SAN FRANCISCO — After two California train accidents this summer in which cellphone use may have been a factor, state regulators were preparing a ban on the wireless devices for rail crews in the weeks prior to the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth that killed 25 people.
The grim irony was disclosed Thursday by state Public Utilities Commission officials as they voted to impose the cellphone ban. It came a day after federal investigators confirmed that a Metrolink engineer had been sending and receiving text messages while on duty last Friday, the day of the head-on collision with a Union Pacific freight train, the worst California train disaster in 50 years.
Investigators are trying to determine why the engineer did not heed signal lights warning that another train was heading his way.
The commission voted unanimously to bypass normal procedures and impose an immediate ban on the use of wireless devices by train engineers, conductors and brakemen while on duty. The only exception would be in emergencies, after a train has stopped and permission has been received from superiors.
"It's extremely unfortunate that it took this terrible Metrolink tragedy to focus our attention on this very serious issue," said Commissioner Rachelle B. Chong.
Months-long concern
The commission's concern arose in June when a San Francisco Municipal Railway train ran a light and hit a stopped train, injuring 16 people, said Richard Clark, director of the commission's division that oversees rail safety. Then in July, a track worker was killed in Sacramento.
Members of the commission, which shares some railroad oversight and accident investigation responsibilities with the federal government, said they want their agency to step up rail safety efforts.
Among directions given Thursday was a call to conduct an examination of train crew work schedules, including long, split-shift days such as those worked by the Metrolink engineer in the Chatsworth crash.
The agency said it would also push harder for automated train-stopping systems, which federal investigators say would have prevented the Chatsworth collision.
Political pressure increased this week to make the automated safety systems mandatory after California's U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer introduced legislation that would require railroad companies to install the systems by 2012 in high-risk areas where passenger and freight trains share tracks, and in all other areas by 2014.
