California Collision Creates Calls for PTC Devices, Cell Phone Bans
9/24/2008 -
California regulators last week ordered train crewmembers to stop using cell phones while they are on duty following a deadly collision between two trains.
The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved an emergency order that bans cell phones and other personal electronic devices from use by train operators. The Federal Railroad Administration is considering a similar rule.
The emergency order follows the Sept. 12 head-on collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific Railroad train that killed 25 people and injured 135 others.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said around the time of the collision, the Metrolink locomotive engineer was text messaging on his cell phone. They said he ran a red light before slamming into the oncoming freight train on the same track in Chatsworth, Calif.
Some railroads already have work rules that forbid use of personal communication devices on duty, but California Public Utilities commissioners said the rules are widely ignored by train crews.
FRA regulations do not currently regulate use of personal communication devices by rail workers.
Two teenage rail buffs told a local television station they exchanged text messages with Metrolink engineer Robert Sanchez one minute before the collision. The NTSB sought cell phone records on cell phone communications of Sanchez, who was killed in the crash. The NTSB confirmed he was sending text messages before the collision but did not say whether any were sent a minute before the accident.
The FRA’s railroad safety advisory committee has considered cell phone restrictions previously but now is working on a new regulation, FRA officials said. They are scheduled to meet again this week in Chicago.
The NTSB recommended to the FRA in 2003 that the agency regulate cell phone use after a coal train engineer was apparently distracted by his phone in a May 2002 collision between two freight trains near Clarendon, Texas. The coal train engineer was killed. The engineer and conductor of the other train were critically injured.
The Sept. 12 collision also is giving greater political momentum to use of positive train control (PTC) technology.
The NTSB and the FRA have been saying for 30 years that the automated controls for trains could prevent many derailments and collisions caused by human error. The Metrolink and Union Pacific collision appears to be a good example of how the technology could have avoided a disaster, based on the evidence the Metrolink engineer ran a red light.
Union Pacific has been testing automated controls for its trains but has not yet deployed them widely.
“At some point, we may be having a conversation specifically about the UP technology that we are testing, but we are not there yet,” Zoe Richmond, Union Pacific spokeswoman, told USRN.
Under FRA-required protocols, the conductor and the engineer were supposed to call out signals to each other as the train passed them.
However, audio recordings from the Metrolink train show nothing but silence as the train passed first a solid yellow light and then a red beacon, NTSB officials said. The conductor and engineer correctly called previous lights during the run, but missed the last two before the collision.
PTC technology could have sounded alarms in the locomotive cab and possibly braked the train automatically to avoid the collision, NTSB investigators said after the accident. PTC is used most widely along the Northeast Corridor and on routes between Chicago and Detroit. Railroads have not installed much of it in California, where freight and passenger trains commonly share track. They have hesitated to install the devices because of the high costs and what they say is unproven reliability of the technology.
Contact: Zoe Richmond, Union Pacific, (916) 789-6019.
The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved an emergency order that bans cell phones and other personal electronic devices from use by train operators. The Federal Railroad Administration is considering a similar rule.
The emergency order follows the Sept. 12 head-on collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific Railroad train that killed 25 people and injured 135 others.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said around the time of the collision, the Metrolink locomotive engineer was text messaging on his cell phone. They said he ran a red light before slamming into the oncoming freight train on the same track in Chatsworth, Calif.
Some railroads already have work rules that forbid use of personal communication devices on duty, but California Public Utilities commissioners said the rules are widely ignored by train crews.
FRA regulations do not currently regulate use of personal communication devices by rail workers.
Two teenage rail buffs told a local television station they exchanged text messages with Metrolink engineer Robert Sanchez one minute before the collision. The NTSB sought cell phone records on cell phone communications of Sanchez, who was killed in the crash. The NTSB confirmed he was sending text messages before the collision but did not say whether any were sent a minute before the accident.
The FRA’s railroad safety advisory committee has considered cell phone restrictions previously but now is working on a new regulation, FRA officials said. They are scheduled to meet again this week in Chicago.
The NTSB recommended to the FRA in 2003 that the agency regulate cell phone use after a coal train engineer was apparently distracted by his phone in a May 2002 collision between two freight trains near Clarendon, Texas. The coal train engineer was killed. The engineer and conductor of the other train were critically injured.
The Sept. 12 collision also is giving greater political momentum to use of positive train control (PTC) technology.
The NTSB and the FRA have been saying for 30 years that the automated controls for trains could prevent many derailments and collisions caused by human error. The Metrolink and Union Pacific collision appears to be a good example of how the technology could have avoided a disaster, based on the evidence the Metrolink engineer ran a red light.
Union Pacific has been testing automated controls for its trains but has not yet deployed them widely.
“At some point, we may be having a conversation specifically about the UP technology that we are testing, but we are not there yet,” Zoe Richmond, Union Pacific spokeswoman, told USRN.
Under FRA-required protocols, the conductor and the engineer were supposed to call out signals to each other as the train passed them.
However, audio recordings from the Metrolink train show nothing but silence as the train passed first a solid yellow light and then a red beacon, NTSB officials said. The conductor and engineer correctly called previous lights during the run, but missed the last two before the collision.
PTC technology could have sounded alarms in the locomotive cab and possibly braked the train automatically to avoid the collision, NTSB investigators said after the accident. PTC is used most widely along the Northeast Corridor and on routes between Chicago and Detroit. Railroads have not installed much of it in California, where freight and passenger trains commonly share track. They have hesitated to install the devices because of the high costs and what they say is unproven reliability of the technology.
Contact: Zoe Richmond, Union Pacific, (916) 789-6019.
- House Committee Approves $4 Billion for High-Speed Rail Funding in 2010
- New York LIRR Engineer Accused of Allowing Passenger to Run Train
- Union Pacific Sells Track for Denver Commuter Rail
- Senator Urges Wireless Service for New York Commuter Rails
- Amtrak Expands Virginia Service as More Federal Funds Available