IamKeenan
09-14-2008, 10:36 PM
Just ask Robert Sanchez of Los Angeles just before killing 24 people in a head on Train crash. It is reported he may of been text messaging just before the crash. No one is really certain but he and 24 more people are dead
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — As the foggy morning broke Sunday, this small city just north of Los Angeles began to come to grips with the myriad heartbreaks that cut through a broad swath of the community.
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Related
Rail Line Says Train Ran Signal; Death Toll at 25 (September 14, 2008)
Cause Is Offered, but Questions Linger for Inquiry (September 14, 2008)
For Many Angelenos, a New Experience Gone Wrong (September 14, 2008)
For One Crash Survivor, a Certain Sense of Déjà Vu (September 14, 2008)
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Monica Almeida/The New York Times
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the scene in the San Fernando Valley on Saturday as the investigation continued. More Photos »
At least eight of the 25 people who died in the head-on crash of a commuter train and a freight train a few miles south of here Friday afternoon, were from Simi Valley, a quiet community known for its horse ranches and the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum.
Disparate in age, occupation and reasons for traveling on the train bound from downtown Los Angeles to Ventura County, their lives had almost certainly converged on earlier Metrolink trains.
There was the 59-year-old mechanic on his regular commute, and the immigrant from Cambodia who had gone to Los Angeles for an eye appointment. There was the police officer who had specialized in catching drug suspects and once shaved her hair to donate to cancer patients. There was a tower manager from the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank with three grown children, and a store clerk with two teen-agers, and a pre-med student riding the train home from school to visit his family.
On Sunday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles asked churches in the area to pause for a moment of prayer for those who died in the crash in Chatsworth, which also injured 135 passengers, 40 of them critically, in one of the nation’s deadliest train wrecks.
"It has affected everyone," said Pat McCoy, a pastor at the Cornerstone Church. “We take community seriously here.” A Cornerstone parishioner, Walt Fuller, died in the crash, and an exchange student from Africa who often helped with the church’s musical worship suffered a brain injury.
By late Saturday afternoon, Mr. McCoy said, 35 parishioners had descended on Mr. Fuller’s home to comfort his widow. "They were there to pray with her, to be with her, to love on her," he said. "She is remarkably strong and has a lot of faith. She knows her husband is in heaven now and that gives her some comfort. "
Officials said that all the bodies from the crash site had been recovered by Sunday, and that the area would now be dominated by federal accident investigators, who said they would leave no theory unturned, including the one put forth by the commuter rail operator, Metrolink, which blamed an engineer, who died in the wreck, for failing to heed a red signal.
Federal transportation officials also cautioned regarding widespread news reports that the train engineer, identified as Robert Sanchez of Los Angeles, had been text messaging with teenager train buffs shortly before the collision. At a news conference, Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board said the reports would be investigated, but she urged caution. She noted that she had been involved in the investigation of a commuter train crash in Boston in May in which rumors that the driver had been using a cellphone were unfounded.
The NTSB investigation into the crash had just begun on Saturday when a Metrolink spokeswoman, Denise Tyrrell, announced: "Our preliminary investigation shows it was a Metrolink engineer that failed to stop at a red signal and was the probable cause of the accident.” She acknowledged that it was unusual for the agency to announce findings before a federal team investigates.
The crash was the deadliest commuter train accident in the nation since 1972, when 45 people died in Chicago, and the deadliest train crash of any kind since the 1993 Amtrak crash in Mobile, Ala., in which 47 people died.
The engineer was the only one of five train workers — three on the freight train and two on the commuter railroad — to die in the crash, Ms. Tyrrell said. She said the engineer, whom she did not identify, worked for an Amtrak subcontractor that had been used by Metrolink since 1998.
Ms. Tyrrell said her agency’s preliminary findings determined that the signal on the track was working properly, and that both trains appeared to be traveling about 40 miles per hour. The conductor of the train, who gives the commands to the engineer, was being interviewed by law enforcement officials, she said.
Metrolink disclosed its findings so quickly, she said, because officials of the rail line, “want to remain on honorable grounds with the community.”
“One way to do that is to be honest and forthright from the beginning,” she said, adding, “We don’t come to this conclusion lightly.”
National Transportation Safety Board officials were far less conclusive. Ms. Higgins said that while the agency could “absolutely not rule out” human error, it would examine track signals, equipment and many other factors. Three data recorders taken from the two trains, as well as a video recorder from the freight train, would be analyzed, she said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, who arrived at the scene midafternoon Saturday, said, “The investigation, of course, continues on.”
Nearby, the Los Angeles County coroner set up a large tan air-conditioned tent in the grassy area between the wreck and Chatsworth Hills Academy.
Many passengers described how their quiet commute had been dotted with chatter about the coming weekend until it was punctured by instant terror and carnage shortly before 4:30 p.m. Friday.
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — As the foggy morning broke Sunday, this small city just north of Los Angeles began to come to grips with the myriad heartbreaks that cut through a broad swath of the community.
Skip to next paragraph
Multimedia
Photographs
California Train Accident
Related
Rail Line Says Train Ran Signal; Death Toll at 25 (September 14, 2008)
Cause Is Offered, but Questions Linger for Inquiry (September 14, 2008)
For Many Angelenos, a New Experience Gone Wrong (September 14, 2008)
For One Crash Survivor, a Certain Sense of Déjà Vu (September 14, 2008)
Enlarge This Image
Monica Almeida/The New York Times
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the scene in the San Fernando Valley on Saturday as the investigation continued. More Photos »
At least eight of the 25 people who died in the head-on crash of a commuter train and a freight train a few miles south of here Friday afternoon, were from Simi Valley, a quiet community known for its horse ranches and the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum.
Disparate in age, occupation and reasons for traveling on the train bound from downtown Los Angeles to Ventura County, their lives had almost certainly converged on earlier Metrolink trains.
There was the 59-year-old mechanic on his regular commute, and the immigrant from Cambodia who had gone to Los Angeles for an eye appointment. There was the police officer who had specialized in catching drug suspects and once shaved her hair to donate to cancer patients. There was a tower manager from the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank with three grown children, and a store clerk with two teen-agers, and a pre-med student riding the train home from school to visit his family.
On Sunday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles asked churches in the area to pause for a moment of prayer for those who died in the crash in Chatsworth, which also injured 135 passengers, 40 of them critically, in one of the nation’s deadliest train wrecks.
"It has affected everyone," said Pat McCoy, a pastor at the Cornerstone Church. “We take community seriously here.” A Cornerstone parishioner, Walt Fuller, died in the crash, and an exchange student from Africa who often helped with the church’s musical worship suffered a brain injury.
By late Saturday afternoon, Mr. McCoy said, 35 parishioners had descended on Mr. Fuller’s home to comfort his widow. "They were there to pray with her, to be with her, to love on her," he said. "She is remarkably strong and has a lot of faith. She knows her husband is in heaven now and that gives her some comfort. "
Officials said that all the bodies from the crash site had been recovered by Sunday, and that the area would now be dominated by federal accident investigators, who said they would leave no theory unturned, including the one put forth by the commuter rail operator, Metrolink, which blamed an engineer, who died in the wreck, for failing to heed a red signal.
Federal transportation officials also cautioned regarding widespread news reports that the train engineer, identified as Robert Sanchez of Los Angeles, had been text messaging with teenager train buffs shortly before the collision. At a news conference, Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board said the reports would be investigated, but she urged caution. She noted that she had been involved in the investigation of a commuter train crash in Boston in May in which rumors that the driver had been using a cellphone were unfounded.
The NTSB investigation into the crash had just begun on Saturday when a Metrolink spokeswoman, Denise Tyrrell, announced: "Our preliminary investigation shows it was a Metrolink engineer that failed to stop at a red signal and was the probable cause of the accident.” She acknowledged that it was unusual for the agency to announce findings before a federal team investigates.
The crash was the deadliest commuter train accident in the nation since 1972, when 45 people died in Chicago, and the deadliest train crash of any kind since the 1993 Amtrak crash in Mobile, Ala., in which 47 people died.
The engineer was the only one of five train workers — three on the freight train and two on the commuter railroad — to die in the crash, Ms. Tyrrell said. She said the engineer, whom she did not identify, worked for an Amtrak subcontractor that had been used by Metrolink since 1998.
Ms. Tyrrell said her agency’s preliminary findings determined that the signal on the track was working properly, and that both trains appeared to be traveling about 40 miles per hour. The conductor of the train, who gives the commands to the engineer, was being interviewed by law enforcement officials, she said.
Metrolink disclosed its findings so quickly, she said, because officials of the rail line, “want to remain on honorable grounds with the community.”
“One way to do that is to be honest and forthright from the beginning,” she said, adding, “We don’t come to this conclusion lightly.”
National Transportation Safety Board officials were far less conclusive. Ms. Higgins said that while the agency could “absolutely not rule out” human error, it would examine track signals, equipment and many other factors. Three data recorders taken from the two trains, as well as a video recorder from the freight train, would be analyzed, she said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, who arrived at the scene midafternoon Saturday, said, “The investigation, of course, continues on.”
Nearby, the Los Angeles County coroner set up a large tan air-conditioned tent in the grassy area between the wreck and Chatsworth Hills Academy.
Many passengers described how their quiet commute had been dotted with chatter about the coming weekend until it was punctured by instant terror and carnage shortly before 4:30 p.m. Friday.