LA: Audio Sheds Light On Deadly Train Wreck

Federal investigators said Sunday that records audio from a commuter train needed missing verbal safety between the engineer and leader in the seconds before the train collided with a freight engine, 25 dead.

Records obtained by the National Transportation Safety Board Metrolink dispatch center, the engineer and the chief called and confirmed light signals along the road, but the tapes are missing this call and response for the last two fires passing of the train just before the sinking of the fire, said Kitty Higgins, director of the NTSB.

Investigators also determined Sunday that train did not stop at red signal finally, making the train on a track where the Union Pacific freight traveling in the opposite direction, Higgins said during a press conference. The announcement confirmed earlier statements Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said Saturday that the engineer who walked the red signal and caused the accident.

NTSB experts are also plans for the mobile phone records of two teenagers and the engineer, who died in the accident, after the teenager told KCBS-TV has received a message from the engineer to 4: 22 pm Friday. The disaster took place moments later.

Higgins said that his institution is still not ruling out any possible cause of the collision. She said usually an investigation into a train accident last one year.

"There are a lot of things. In every accident I was concerned, it has never been a major factor. I call it the perfect storm. We try not to jump to conclusions," said Higgins.

The accident Friday was the nation worst rail disaster in 15 years. Besides the 25 deaths, 135 injuries, many critical, when the Metrolink train with 220 passengers cylinders in a Union Pacific freight train north of Los Angeles.

Higgins said the conductor and engineer were invited to call signals to each other as the train moved, but there was silence on sound recordings as the train passed a red light or yellow Last tag.

The couple has asked the light just right for these two, or a flashing yellow light signals approach.

"We did not register a Callout or confirmation of these two signals," she said.

She warned, however, that the train in May in a dead zone where the recording was interrupted.

Higgins said the NTSB for measuring the distance between points along the track on Monday.

She also said investigators wanted to talk to the chef, who was wounded in the shooting.

"It will be able to tell us if he recalled the engineer of the profession and the confirmation of these signals," she said.

Higgins said experts are still examining whether the signal was working properly and were Metrolink engineer in the line of sight. Investigators will also examine the data to ensure that the signals are fully operational.

But she stressed that obedience to signals on the runway was an engineer, their responsibilities at the head of a train.

"My view is that it is very unusual for an experienced technician to run a red light," she said.

Metro Link said earlier Sunday that a dispatcher tried to warn the engineer of the train he was on the brink of collision with a freight train, but the call came too late. The sender has a driver at the rear of the train, but he had already crashed into the oncoming Union Pacific, Metrolink officials.

However, the NTSB report contradicts the Metro Link. Higgins said the dispatcher noticed something was wrong, but before he could contact the train, the conductor - who survived - called to report the wreck.

Higgins said she believed the crash could have been avoided with the technology that stops a train on the tracks when a signal is obeyed. The technology, known as Positive Train Control, is not in when the collision took place.

"I believe that this technology could have avoided the accident. If he signal the train is stopped. I saw the test. It makes a difference," she said.

Rescue teams recovered two data recorders Saturday of the Metrolink train and a data recorder and a video of the freight train. The video images of the future cameras and data recorders have information on speed, braking, patterns and whether the horn was used.

Two days after the accident, men wearing green and orange safety vests and walk the track on Sunday in an early morning fog, while others broke photos and climbed into the tank wreck of the car's front passenger.

There were no reports of deaths Sunday hospitals and the scene was cleared of the bodies, said Lt. Cheryl MacWillie County coroner's Office. Two other victims were identified, leaving only two of whose names were not released pending notification of family.

The collision happened at a horseshoe part of the track in Chatsworth, on the western tip of the San Fernando Valley, nearly 500 meters long tunnel under Stoney Point Park. There is a rail connection to one end of the tunnel where a train can wait for another, said Tyrrell.

Was the train in downtown Los Angeles to Ventura County. The impact broke the Metro Link engine to the rear, jamming deep into the first car.

It was the deadliest accident involving passenger trains since September 22, 1993, when the Amtrak Sunset Limited plunged off a trestle into a swamp near Mobile, Ala., moments after the blunder was damaged by a tug, 47 people died.