Rail crash engineer was texting on duty

The USA's National Transportation Safety Board has issued a new statement about the railway collision in September that killed 25 people and injured 130. As previously suggested, the engineer of the Metrolink train had been sending text messages while on duty (in contravention of his company's policy). The last text message received by the engineer's phone before the accident was at 4:21:03 pm according to the mobile phone company's records, and the last text message sent from the phone was 4:22:01 pm. The accident was estimated to happen at 4:22:23 pm. As a result of these findings, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has said it will issue an emergency order explicitly prohibiting the use of personal electronic devices by railroad employees while operating trains and in other settings. [NTSB press release; FRA press release]