Train engineer in deadly crash while texting

There are people who walk across the street looking at their BlackBerry and not at the traffic. And there are plenty of people who talk on their cell phones, or even text while driving--a risky business. Now it appears that the Metrolink commuter rail engineer involved in the deadly train collision in Chatsworth, CA this month had sent and received text messages while on duty that day, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

NTSB investigators said they are still trying to determine the timing of the messages that engineer Robert Sanchez sent and received to compare them with the time of the crash that killed 25 people and left 135 injured.

"Texting is worse than talking on a cell phone because your eyes are down," Jack Gold, an analyst with J. Gold Associates in Northborough, MA told NetworkWorld.com. "This accident just points out the fact that a lot of people don't use common sense while texting, and more legislation forbidding it is coming, I'm sure."

The California state legislature has approved a bill that would ban texting while driving that now awaits the governor's signature. Alaska, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington state have laws banning texting while driving, and similar legislation is pending in 16 other states, according to the Governors' Highway Safety Association.

For more on the dangers of texting:
- check out this NetworkWorld.com article [1]
- and this New York Times article [2]