Recipe for Disaster
Updated 11:06 AM PST, Wed, Jan 7, 2009
LOS ANGELES -- Supervisors of the engineer running the Metrolink train involved in the deadly Chatsworth crash were warned repeatedly about his habit of text-messaging on the job, lawyers representing some crash victims alleged Tuesday.
Engineer Robert Sanchez was operating Metrolink Ventura County Line train No. 111 when it smashed head-on into a freight train on Sept. 12, killing Sanchez and 24 others.
A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board investigation revealed that Sanchez had been sending text messages around the time that his train went through a red signal and headed straight for the other train.
Managers at Connex Railroad, which holds the contract to provide Metrolink with engineers, had received multiple complaints from one of Sanchez's coworkers about his texting habits prior to the crash, said attorney R. Edward Pfiester, who is representing some of the crash's victims.
A spokeswoman for Connex's parent company, Veolia, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The coworker, whose name was not released, complained a few weeks before the crash, and then again just two to three hours before it occurred, " ... and they didn't do anything," Pfiester said.
Sanchez was also allegedly caught during a field test with a cell phone in his bag that was turned on, violating company policy, lawyers said.
"We believe and common sense indicates that if you have somebody texting all the time, you've busted him a few months before, within two weeks of the date of the accident a fellow employee calls management and says 'Hey guys, you've got to do something about this, everybody's at risk, something's going to happen,' that that is a factual manifestation of conscious disregard of the safety of the passengers," Pfiester said.
Lawsuits brought in the wake of the Chatsworth crash -- the worst rail accident in California in 50 years -- could be the first test of a $200 million federally imposed cap on the damages associated with train accidents.
First Published: Jan 6, 2009 4:40 PM PST
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