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Texting May Have Led to LA Train Crash
Teens say engineer was chatting with them just before tragedy
By Matt Cantor
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Posted Sep 15, 08 7:06 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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The engineer in a Los Angeles train crash that killed 25 people may have been text-messaging with two teenagers before running a stop signal, CNN reports. Federal investigators will be studying the phone records of the teenagers, one of whom told local KCBS-TV that he had been chatting about his interest in trains with the engineer and received a text a minute before the crash.
“We are going to be obtaining records” from the teens’ and engineer's cell phones "to begin to determine what might have happened,” said a spokesman for the investigators. The train had been rounding a curve at 42mph in a 40mph zone, said a Metrolink representative. The engineer, who was killed in the crash, was a subcontractor for another company. Engineers are not allowed to use outside electronics such as a cell phone while working.