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.