Ban on train drivers using mobile phones
 

From the pages of Railway News

Ban on train drivers using mobile phones after 26 killed in California train crash

TRAIN drivers in California are to be prohibited from using mobile phones while in charge of trains following reports that the driver of a passenger train that collided head on with a freight train, killing 26 people and seriously injuring many more, was texting rail enthusiasts moments before the collision.

The crash occurred at Chatsworth, north of Los Angeles, when a three-car double-deck Metrolink passenger train, operated by a driver employed by Connex Railroad—a subsidiary of Veolia Transportation—collided with a Union Pacific multi-modal service on a single line section of track.

The Connex driver, who is thought to be among the dead, has been blamed. A Metrolink spokeswoman said that a preliminary investigation showed the engineer (driver) employed by Connex/Veolia Transportation failed to stop at a red signal.

A local TV station on the CBS network, CBS-2 TV, has shown an interview with a local teenager saying he exchanged a brief text message with the driver shortly before the crash.

The TV station reported that Nick Williams was among a group of young people who had befriended the train driver and asked him questions about his work.

A CBS-2 reporter showed viewers Williams’ cell phone, which appeared to carry a text message, timed moments before the crash, received from the driver of the passenger train.

The president of the California Public Utilities Commission has now said he will seek an emergency order prohibiting the use of cell phones while operating a train in the state.

A US Federal Railroad Administration spokesman said there was no existing federal regulation regarding the use of cell phones by rail employees on the job. Metrolink, however, said it prohibits rail workers from using cell phones on the job.

The disaster occurred on a horseshoe-shaped curve, and it is unlikely that either train driver saw the other train approaching until the last minute, and had little chance to apply brakes.

US National Transportation Safety Board investigators have been assessing the scene of the wreck. The force of the impact was so great that the Metrolink locomotive was forced back into the following passenger car.

Of a total of 220 passengers on the Metrolink train, 135 were injured, with 81 taken to hospitals in serious or critical condition.

The death toll reached 26 when two of the critically injured died in hospital.

Drivers in the UK have not been allowed to use their mobiles whilst driving a train for many years.

Been in the rule book for a good few years too.

Les

It will be interesting to see what the enquiry into this tragic accident discovers.
Are train drivers in the U.K. allowed to use mobile phones for personal calls when driving? Thanks Les you gave the answer before I even posted the question.:)

Are train drivers in the U.K. allowed to use mobile phones for personal calls when driving?[/QUOTE]

NO No NO.

Not even supposed to use for company business when driving. Any driver caught faces discipline and most probably the dole queue.

I'm not saying that it does'nt happen but you pay your money you take your chance if you take my meaning.

Only exception would be a case of an emergency call.

Les

I would fully agree that train drivers should not be using a mobile phone whilst in charge of a train, but I'm not that sure about this being the cause of the accident in California. Both trains were on the same track, but going in opposite directions. Surely that cannot be the fault of the driver?

I agree with you there Trev, why were two trains heading towards each other on a single line.

I'm glad an ex-railwayman agrees with me! I was afraid I might have ended up looking like a total idiot!. Thing is, even if the driver went through a red light, the path shouldn't have been set so that he could get onto the track and so collide with an oncoming freight train. Is that about right Alan?

Why can't it be the fault of the driver.

If he was using his mobile phone,texting as the report suggests, he may have been looking down, passed a signal at danger hey presto two trains in the same section going in opposite directions, not a good senario.

I don't know if the American system has safety equipment fitted to the track as we do over here i.e TPWS or possibily a better system, but if they do/did it could possibly have avoided this accident.

Les

On single track there must be passing loops, I am thinking of the RHDR single line to Dungeness here. The loops do not use manually operated points and rely on the rules being followed so two trains do not have an embarrasing encounter head to head. So could they have a similar system out there away from civilisation and the passenger train driver did not see the red,carried on out of the loop with fatal consequenses?
John (G)

I thought, even in an emergency, you still had to leave the cab to use a mobile, by the rules atleast.

Hi Trev I don't know about the American technology used these days on single line working but in B R days a token or tablet was used, this ensured only one train could use a certain section of single line track.

For the reasons that Les and Gandalf have pointed out it could well have been driver error.
I don't know a great deal about U.S.railroads but I believe that many of them are not equipped with the same safety systems that we have in Europe. Although a small number of passenger trains do use them, most lines in the U.S.are financed by freight carrying railroads and I have even read that many of them consider it more cost effective to accept the occasional accident than to invest in expensive safety systems:eek: That might be true for infrastructure and rolling-stock but I don't think the relatives of people killed and injured would agree.

Safety must be almost non-existent in the US if this can happen!

I still don't get it though. If the driver passed a red signal and thereby gained access to the main line, surely the points would have been set against him? Wouldn't he have de-railed? And if he was already on the main line, and had stopped at a red signal, then he would still have been in the path of the freight train.

Memo to self; "If ever in the US, do not travel by train".

The Drivers Rulebook passes the decisions to the individual TOC/FOC on how mobiles are used. Section G1/4.2 states "When on duty you must use a mobile telephone, your own or one issued to you, only as shown in your employers instructions".

The rules do state that in an emergency you must contact the signaller immediately by any means available. It doesn't matter where you're standing (so long as you're in a position of safety).

My employers require the mobile to be used in the same manner as the cab radio, ie; the driver must never allow him/herself to become distracted from driving by any communications equipment. At my TOC I'm required to have my personal mobile switched off whilst in the cab, and my company mobile must be in silent mode and in my bag - until things go wrong, at which point I can use them if I need to.

Trev, even when set against them, trains can force their way through trailing points without derailing although the points themselves will probably be damaged.
I don't know what happens in the U.S. but some railways actually use spring-loaded points at the entrance and exit of loops like those mentioned by Gandalf on the RH&DR. They are also quite common on Swiss metre-gauge lines.
One way to guard against this happening is to use trap points as was discussed in a previous thread.

I think you'll find that trains can still collide in the UK. Thousands of mainline signals are NOT fitted with TPWS, and not all conflicting moves are protected by trap points.

Humans make mistakes, SPADS still happen and there will still be fatal accidents on our Railway, I'm sorry to say.

Okay lads, fair enough I suppose. I've still got an awful feeling that the authorities are going along with the, 'blame the driver, it's easier' theory though. :(

Reports in the U.S. Press are saying that no type of train protection system was installed in the area of the crash. Apparently it was standard practice for the driver and conductor of the passenger train to confirm the indications of the colourlight signals by radio to the control-room but this wasn't done for the last two signals before the crash ie. yellow and red.