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Text Messaging May Have Been Behind 2008 Train Crash
| February 7, 2010. By LAS Newswire |
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Washington, DC: An investigation into a 2008 train crash that killed 25 and injured 135 people in Chatsworth, California found that the tragic accident may have been caused by an engineer who ran a red signal while composing a text message.
 The incident occurred when the vehicle collided with another freight train at a combined speed of more than 80 miles per hour. It is listed as one of the worst rail catastrophes in modern California history, according to the LA Times.
Meeting to discuss ways to prevent such accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended that the federal government introduce legislation that would require surveillance cameras in nearly all locomotives so that railroad managers can prevent engineers from talking on cell phones, sleeping or admitting unauthorized guests.
Though there are currently rules against cell phone usage and other distracting activities in place for engineers, officials from the NTSB claim that they are currently unenforceable.
"Technology has the ability to increase the number of distractions, but it also has the ability to increase safety in the cab," Deborah A.P. Henson, chairwoman of the NTSB, told the New York Times. "It's a new paradigm, this area of distractions; it's changing how humans behave. It's our hope that the recommendations today will change how humans perform."
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