Metrolink: Engineer Failed to Stop for Freight Train 25 Confirmed Dead

US authorities investigating why a Southern California commuter train engineer ran a red signal and into an oncoming freight train have confirmed he was text messaging on the day of the fatal collision.

The revelation came just before California regulators issued a temporary order on Thursday banning train operators from using mobile phones while on duty.

The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously passed an emergency order to ban the use of mobile phones and other personal electronic devices while operating a train.

Last week, a Metrolink commuter train ran head-on into a freight train, killing 25 people and injuring more than 130 others.

Federal authorities confirmed that on the day of the crash, the Metrolink train engineer was text-messaging on his phone while on duty.

Officer Spree DeSha was remembered Thursday as a tough and compassionate member of the Los Angeles Police Department who wanted to be in law enforcement from the time she was a child.

DeSha was among the 25 people killed in Friday's Metrolink crash near Chatsworth. DeSha, 35, was in the forward passenger car of Metrolink Train 111 when it slammed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train, sending the locomotive through the crowded passenger car. In addition to the 25 people who died, 135 were injured.

"Spree was and always will be a police officer. This became the essence of her being. It was not an occupation or a job -- it was a passion," Deputy Chief Jim McDonnell told the hundreds of uniformed officers and city leaders at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

DeSha was a seven-year department veteran who had only recently transferred to a position at Parker Center. She was preparing to take the exam to become a sergeant in the department.

DeSha's girlfriend, fellow LAPD Officer Laura Gerritsen, called their relationship the "best six years of my life."

Screams of anguish reverberated across the phone line — the only clue dispatchers needed to gauge the magnitude of the tragedy.

A train crash. Bloody victims. Desperate callers pleading for help.

"We have a whole bunch of people now bleeding and on the floor," one man told a 911 dispatcher in a trembling voice.

The man was among hundreds of callers who described a chaotic scene following the collision Sept. 12 between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight engine. The wreck killed 25 people and injured more than 130 others.

Fire officials released a few recordings of the calls Wednesday night following several media requests.

Some callers seemed calm, others frantic.

"Please hurry!" one person urged the dispatcher. "People are bleeding and hurt here."

One man told the dispatcher he wasn't sure what the train hit. Together, amid the chaos, the injured passengers slowly discovered what happened.

"I can see about seven or eight people, in the one car I'm in, that are bleeding or on the floor," a passenger told the dispatcher.

Ms. Tyrell says that she resigned after Mr. Roberts called her announcement "premature" and he said that she "did not have authorization" to make the statement. Ms. Tyrell said that she had the authorization of David Solow, Metrolink's chief executive, to take responsibility for the crash.  Mr. Solow couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

"The statement was and is accurate," Ms. Tyrell said in an email. "It was the right thing to do regardless of how ticked off it made the NTSB."

Coroner's assistant chief Ed Winter said the man in his 50s died Saturday at County-USC Medical Center. His name was withheld pending notification of relatives.

Meanwhile, federal officials investigating the crash said they wanted to review cell phone records to determine if an engineer blamed by a Metrolink spokeswoman for running a stop signal before the crash may have been text messaging at the time.

With the probe into Friday's crash continuing, a smaller number of commuters than normal returned to the rails Monday morning.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa boarded one of the morning's earliest trains.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the death toll might go higher (than 24) if people succumb to their injuries at any of the dozen or so hospitals where roughly 47 people remain in critical condition. About 40 others are hospitalized in serious condition a day after the head-on crash in Chatsworth.

Emergency personnel on Saturday morning continued their intensive search for victims and the event recorders carried by a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train which collided Friday afternoon near Chatsworth, and in an impromptu news conference at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrell said a contract engineer who was driving the Metrolink train was responsible for the crash. She said the engineer was supposed to pull off in resopnse to a red light and wait for the other train to go by, but he failed to do that.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Friday's collision "a human tragedy that is beyond words."

Sheriff Lee Baca called the collision a "catastrophe that has no limit."

The crash is the deadliest in the history of Metrolink, which began service in 1992.

Its previous deadliest crash came on Jan. 26, 2005 when 11 people were killed when a train slammed into a Jeep Cherokee that had been parked on the train tracks in Atwater Village. The train derailed, struck another train traveling in the opposite direction and hit a freight train.

A Metrolink commuter train believed to be carrying up to 350 people collided with a freight train Friday afternoon, killing four people, injuring dozens and leaving an unknown number of others trapped in a horrifically mangled passenger imploded by its own locomotive.

Firefighters put out a fire under part of the wreckage and pulled people from the devastated passenger car which was left lying on its side with the Metrolink engine shoved back inside it. Two other cars in the Metrolink train remained upright. Firefighters worked to free victims more than two hours after the wreck.

Firefighters treated the injured at three triage areas near the wreck, and helicopters flew in and out of a nearby landing area on medical evacuation flights.

The trains collided at 4:32 p.m. in the Chatsworth area of the San Fernando Valley.

Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said the train left Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and was headed northwest to Moorpark in Ventura County. She couldn't confirm how many people were on the train, but said that in rush hours there would usually be about 350 people on board.

The federal investigation into the crash will be headed by the National Transportation Safety Board, said Steven Kulm, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration. The FRA will conduct a review of whether any federal rail safety regulations were violated, he said.

Asked about how the two trains ended up on the same track, Kulm said, "We are nowhere near having any information on that."

A Metrolink train and a freight train collided in Chatsworth today, causing several cars to derail and starting a blaze. KTTV-TV Channel 11 was reporting two fatalities. In the initial response, firefighters were making their way through a derailed passenger train looking for victims. TV footage showed firefighters pulling injured passengers and debris out of one overturned car. Fire crews said there were some injuries. Live video of train derailment in Chatsworth Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Armando Hogan told KABC-TV Channel 7 that it was too early to tell whether there were any fatalities. Hogan said more than 100 firefighters were taking part in the rescue and were trying to determine the number of victims. The Los Angeles Police Department called a tactical alert in the San Fernando Valley as officials assessed the situation.

The number of fatalities makes this the deadliest Metrolink crash in the history of the Los Angeles area's commuter railroad.

One of the fatalities is believed to be the Metrolink engineer. Another is a Los Angeles Police Department officer, according to authorities.

If you believe you have a family member who may have been on one of the trains involved in the collision, here's a Metrolink-provided number to call for information:

Metrolink Information Line:
800-371-5465