Sep 16, 2008 6:38 am US/Pacific
NTSB Continues Probe Into Metrolink Crash
LOS ANGELES
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NTSB officials continue to try to piece together what happened in the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth.
CBS
Buses will ferry Metrolink passengers from the Chatsworth Station to whistle stops in Moorpark and Simi Valley again Tuesday, as federal investigators check safety systems along the tracks where 25 people were killed Friday.
So far, all tests suggest it was human error that caused the northbound
train to run a red light and collide head-on with a Union Pacific freighter, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is in charge of the probe.
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 in the crash.
The claim said 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.
The top spokesperson for the regional rail agency, Denise Tyrrell, quit her job Monday, saying she had been publicly undermined by a Metrolink board member.
She said was authorized by Metrolink's chief executive to make public the basic facts of the collision Saturday.
Then, on Sunday, a board member said she had spoken without authorization, and it was too early to place blame on the engineer, Robert Martin Sanchez of La Crescenta.
Colleagues of the engineer are being interviewed about what happened in
the moments before the collision.
Metrolink also subpoenaed the engineer's telephone records in an effort to substantiate claims made by two teens who said they were texting Sanchez about the time the collision occurred.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable set a
news conference for Tuesday morning to call for restraint.
He said the NTSB investigation should be allowed to proceed without prejudice.
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 4:22 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.)
SLIDESHOW: Metrolink Crash
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