LOS ANGELES — A Metrolink engineer sent a cellphone text message 22 seconds before his commuter train crashed head-on into a freight train last month, killing 25 people, federal investigators said Wednesday.
Cellphone records of engineer Robert Sanchez, who was among the dead, show he sent a message after receiving one about a minute and 20 seconds before the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a news release.
Investigators are looking into why Sanchez ran through a red signal and collided with a Union Pacific train Sept. 12 in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. It was the nation’s deadliest rail crash since 1993.
Sanchez sent his last text message at 4:22:01 p.m. According to the freight train’s onboard recorder, the accident occurred at 4:22:23 p.m.
Records obtained from Sanchez’s cellphone provider also showed that he sent 24 text messages and received 21 messages over a two-hour period during his morning shift. During his afternoon shift, he received seven and sent five.
NTSB investigators were continuing to correlate times from Sanchez’s cellphone, the train recorders and data from the railroad signal system.
NTSB spokesman Terry Williams declined to release information about who was exchanging text messages with Sanchez.
In the days after the crash, several teenage train enthusiasts told a reporter Sanchez sent them a text message just before the collision.
