Investigators of a US train wreck that killed 25 people are looking into the role that a text message may have played.
Reports suggest an engineer blamed for missing a stop signal light may have been distracted by text messaging moments before the crash, officials said yesterday.
Some 135 people were injured in the crash, more than 40 of them critically, in the deadliest US rail tragedy in 15 years.
A local TV station reported that a teenage train enthusiast claimed to have received a mobile phone text message from the commuter train engineer about a minute before the collision.
The National Transportation Safety Board is seeking to obtain phone records of the teenager and the engineer.
46-year-old engineer Robert Martin Sanchez died in the wreck. His mobile phone has not been found.
A text message that appeared to have been sent about a minute before the crash by a person identified on the receiving cell phone as 'Rob Sanchez Metro' said: 'Yea ... usually @ Camarillo.'
Railroad operating rules bar engineers from using mobile phones and other electronic devices, or even having them within reach, while driving a train, a Metrolink spokesman said.
A Metrolink spokeswoman said a day after the accident that the engineer was at fault because he failed to stop at a red light, but NTSB and railroad union officials said it was premature to draw such a conclusion.
She was later forced to resign over her comments.
The Metrolink train passed through four warning lights as it neared the freight train. The crash occurred just beyond a stretch of the main rail line where the commuter train usually stops to wait for the freight train to pass it on a side rail.
The Metrolink engineer and the conductor, who rides near the rear of train, normally call each other by radio to confirm signals the engineer sees.
Audio recordings of their transmissions gave no indication that the two exchanged information about the last two signals passed before the wreck, but investigators had not ruled out a radio communication disruption of some kind.
The conductor was seriously injured in the wreck and has yet to be interviewed.
Investigators also will look into the possibility that the engineer may suddenly have been stricken ill, or that a glare from the sun may have obscured his view of the signals.
