Vol. 72/No. 41      October 20, 2008

But rail workers say the accident puts a spotlight on the criminal lack of rail safety.

While the wreckage was still on the tracks, Metrolink officials were pinning the blame on the engineer, Robert Sanchez, who died in the crash. Metrolink officials say he ran through a red signal.

“It is a rush to judgment,” said Ray Garcia, who until 2006 was a conductor on the same Metrolink 111 train. Garcia pointed to a situation where the central computer showed a signal was red, when on the tracks it was not. Garcia said he knew Sanchez for nine years and that he was a qualified worker.

Three people standing on the platform as the train departed the station, one of them a station guard, insist that the signal was green, and not red. Their reports would explain why the alarm at the Metrolink computer dispatch system in Pomona was not triggered when the train passed the signal.

Tim Smith, state chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, said fatigue could have been a key factor. Sanchez worked back-to-back split shifts. He was alone in the engine with one conductor at the other end of the train. His day typically began before 6 a.m. and ended at almost 9:30 p.m. He took a four-and-a-half-hour break without proper facilities to rest before beginning the second half of the shift. “When you whittle all that away, you’re lucky to get three hours’ sleep,” said Smith. Sanchez had worked his shift five days in a row.

Metrolink officials defended the split shifts, saying that hiring extra engineers to cover the morning and evening rush hours would be too expensive.

Technology that could have helped prevent the crash or reduce its impact is not new. Equipment ranges from sensors and automatic braking systems developed 90 years ago, to computer and digital radio communications, to positive train controls that stop a train automatically if an engineer goes through a red signal or there is another train on the track.

Metrolink officials claim such controls have not been perfected to the point where they can be installed throughout Southern California. The company said it will begin adding a second engineer from its extra board, a pool of 15 workers who replace engineers who are sick or on vacation. No new hiring has been announced.

In the aftermath of the September 12 crash, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that would require main passenger lines and freight lines carrying hazardous material to install positive train controls—by 2015. Shortening the hours of rail workers from more than 400 to 276 hours a month is also under discussion.  
 
 
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