The top rail safety regulator of California has said he would look to an emergency order to ban train operators from using mobile phones, as federal investigators investigate to see if the engineer of a passenger train was texting on his mobile phone before a train crash that killed 25 people.

President of the California Public Utilities Commission, Michael Peevey, has said: “Our order would make it the law and we’ll go after violators. We owe it to the public.”

Tests already carried out at the crash site find that the signals were working properly and there were no obstructions to stop the engineer seeing the red light.

The collision happened on Friday between a Union Pacific freight train and the Metrolink commuter train and is the deadliest rail crash in the United States in 15 years. Metrolink has set the blame at its engineer for not heading the red light signal.

Image via here

Source — thewest