Worst accident in history caused by texting?

[omad]

---

Report: Metrolink Engineer Texting With Teen Moments Before Killer Commuter Crash

Sunday, September 14, 2008


LOS ANGELES — The engineer of the Metrolink train that crashed in a head-on collision near Chatsworth, California, was chatting with a teenager moments before the crash, according to the Orange County Register.

Nick Williams, a teenage train enthusiast, told CBS2 in Los Angeles he exchanged three text messages with engineer Robert Sanchez Friday afternoon. Williams, who considered Sanchez a “mentor,” received the last text at 4:22 p.m., one minute before the train wreck, according to the ocregister.com report. Williams' claims have not been confirmed.

Sanchez, who was killed in the crash, said in his final text he would be meeting up with another passenger train later that day. “I just replied back, 'good deal,' and I just said, 'That's cool,' and I never got a response back," Williams reportedly told CBS2.

Friday night's rail disaster was the nation's deadliest in 15 years, a wreck that killed 25 people and left such a mass of smoldering, twisted metal that it took nearly a day to recover all the bodies.


FOXNews.com - Report: Metrolink Engineer Texting With Teen Moments Before Killer Commuter Crash

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this is still under investigation but 25 dead and 135 injured, how careless could one be to be texting?

[joco_ph]

mas arang2x pa ang drink and drive kaysa text and drive.

[SPRINGFIELD_XD_40]

^^^

DRINKING and DRIVING will never be "ARANG-ARANG" bai . Unless you are talking about " DONT DRINK and DRIVE kay MAYABO " or " IF YOU DRINK and DRIVE ... DRINK JAZ or SPARKLE " hehehe .

Back to the topic .... grabe gyud diay ang TXTING , that is a proof now that it is not safe na mag TXT bisan wala ka nag drive but just by operating any MACHINERIES pod because it takes away the focus and concentration of the operator .

[rodsky]

Now wait a second...just wait a friggin' second...

...you're actually thinking...unfriggingbelievably thinking...that the article is saying/implying "Texting causes Train Crash"... *jaw drops to the floor and fragments into a zillion pieces*




For the love of hoolahoops....you people actually think running a train is like driving a car?

*shakes head* Now I know why this country's going down the drain.

And even if it DID cause the crash, the title sucks--it STILL AIN'T the "WORST Accident in History"...I can't believe you guys never even heard of Tenerife 1977.

-RODION

[diatabz]

@ rodsky

Here's an excerpt from the article.

The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track in Chatsworth at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, near a 500-foot-long tunnel underneath Stoney Point Park. There is a siding at one end of the tunnel where one train can wait for another to pass.

"Even if the train is on the main track, it must go through a series of signals and each one of the signals must be obeyed," Tyrrell said. "What we believe happened, barring any new information from the NTSB, is we believe that our engineer failed to stop ... and that was the cause of the accident.

Texting might have caused it. You never know.

[Dorothea]

Unsa man pud tong engr oi, kahibaw na baya siya nga illegal na sa Calif ang texting while driving. Driving means driving anything, kung ma car, ma motorcycle, ma bisikleta, ma train or unsa pa na diha.

Kung naa ka sa trabaho, focus on your work. Dili nang mag sige text text. Do you see any doctors texting while doing surgery? Way klaro nga train engr oi. Daghan na among.

[rodsky]

@ rodsky

Here's an excerpt from the article.



Texting might have caused it. You never know.

Yes but that's akin to saying something like, "Diatabz is a rapist--you never know!" That's the purpose of investigation and the legal system: to prove beyond reasonable doubt. My point is, unless the cause of the crash is directly linked to the texting, this sort of rumour mongering is irresponsible. Just take this case in point...

When the Air Philippines B737 crash on Samal island happened a few years ago, everyone from the pilots to Davao ATC was blamed, even some air traffic controllers sa Davao tower hapit na mabuang and nag-resign nalang tungod sa pressure, kay ginablame daw sila sa relatives sa passengers, nga wala pa gani ang result sa imbestigasyon. Looy intawon sa mga wala'y labot--eventually it was found out that it was caused by pilot error. So I highly suggest that mere speculation should be stopped in fairness to the actual investigation and result of the investigation.

And I invite you to try TRAINZ 2006 ( Trainz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) I'm a regular user of this Train simulator, so I know that even if that guy was doing any texting, there are a lot of safeguards and failsafes to prevent such an incident from happening. The United States have been running trains across their country for over 100 years, and thus their system of monitoring and safeguarding against such incidents have been fine tuned to a degree unheard of even in our own country--such a collapse of a fail-safe system could only imply a catastrophic/massive multiple-failure at several points along the system, which more possible than not, not even a simple "glancing down" by an Engineer due to a text message can contribute to.

-RODION

[SPRINGFIELD_XD_40]

TXTING while OPERATING are not synonymous , they dont even attract thus it doesnt go together but the " TRAIN " issue now is a different story and the level of technicality .

[diatabz]

@ rodsky

Wait hold on, I'm not blaming the engineer, don't get me wrong. Wa pa gani nahuman ang investigation. Its just that the politics demands that someone should take the heat for this accident. That includes speculating on whether or not the engineer was careless. Irresponsible or not, that's the way things work. Mura ra gud atong MV Princess of the Stars. We had people saying inept ang captain and all.

Anyway, I personally think it's too early to point fingers.

[godwhacker]

No txting doesn't kill. Negligence do.