Los Angeles News

CHATSWORTH Continuing the probe into the fatal crash of a Metrolink commuter train and freight train, investigators today put two trains back on the tracks near Chatsworth and moved them slowly back and forth to determine what engineers on each were able to see prior to the collision.

A passenger train and a freight train were staged nose-to-nose on the
closed section of track, and investigators examined the safety systems and conditions under which Friday's collision, which killed 25 people, occurred.

"We'll bring together the two trains ... at the point of impact and we will slowly back them away from each other so we can determine at which point they could no longer see each other," National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins said Monday, describing plans for today's test.

So far, all tests have suggested that human error caused the northbound
Metrolink passenger train to run a yellow light and a red light and collide
head-on with a Union Pacific freighter, according to the NTSB, which is in
charge of the probe.

Colleagues of the engineer -- Robert Martin Sanchez, who died in the
collision -- were being interviewed about what happened in the moments before the crash.

The NTSB has also subpoenaed the engineer's telephone records in an
effort to substantiate claims made by a teenage rail enthusiast who said he received text messages Sanchez about the time the collision occurred.

As the testing continued, buses ferried Metrolink passengers from the
Chatsworth Station to whistle stops in Moorpark and Simi Valley.

Officials said they hoped to have the tracks re-opened by the afternoon rush hour.

More legal claims, which are technical precursors to lawsuits, are expected to be filed against Metrolink.

The first was filed Monday by the family of 19-year-old Aida Magdaleno, a student at Cal State Northridge who was killed.

Magdaleno's family claims the crash could have been avoided if Metrolink
installed an automatic braking system that would override engineers in the case of an imminent collision.

A spokesman for Metrolink declined to comment on the claim. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both D-Calif., introduced proposed legislation today that would require all major U.S. railroads to install "positive train control" systems to prevent collisions.

"The fact is, this collision could have been avoided had there been a positive train control system in place," Feinstein said. "In my view, that's
sheer negligence.

"And it should be totally unacceptable to the American people that we
have rail systems in which two trains going in opposite directions share a
single track -- with only a signal light to stop a collision -- when technology exists to prevent a crash," she said. "This legislation will fix this."

Meanwhile, the top spokeswoman for the regional rail agency, Denise
Tyrrell, quit her job Monday, saying she had been publicly undermined by a Metrolink board member after she announced over the weekend that the Metrolink engineer appeared to be at fault.

The crash was the deadliest rail accident in the United States since Sept. 22, 1993, when an Amtrak train went off a bridge and into a bayou near
Mobile, Ala., killing 47.

Friday's 4:23 p.m. disaster on a curving section of track was Metrolink's worst crash since 2005, when a man parked a vehicle on the tracks in Glendale, causing a train to derail and hit a freight train.

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)