Metrolink Train driver in LA may have been text messaging right before the crash.

[Nikki Stone1]

CBS and NBC have mentioned this so far. This is just awful if it's true.

[ogneopasno]

1. That's what you get

when you require only one person in the cab.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. That and not having a backup system to make up for driver error.

:(

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. When they gamble, everbody loses.

[Warpy]

4. And when you outsource the job, too

You get what you pay for, folks.

[malaise]

8. That's what you get when you get rid of full time workers

and sub-contract serious jobs.

If he was really sending a text, they should take him out of the morgue and shoot him just to ensure he's dead and I'm a pacifist against the death penalty.

[Nikki Stone1]

9. 25 dead, 138 injured

Just horrible.

[ThoughtCriminal]

10. Absolutely true

Once upon a time, there were always two crew members in the cab. Management considered it featherbedding and ignored the safety issue.

[trotsky]

11. Dang. I mean, perfectly healthy people can drop dead at any time.

If people's lives are at stake here, it's worth a little insurance, wouldn't you think? Unbelievable greed and short-sightedness.

[RB TexLa]

5. You have to feel for her or his family who will have to deal with the wrongful death

suits.

[Nikki Stone1]

6. It will be Metrolink that pays.

Deep pockets.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. From KABC News in LA

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=6391765

LOS ANGELES -- Metrolink's top spokesperson quit her job on Monday in a dispute over how facts about Friday's deadly train crash were made public.

Denise Tyrrell said she had spoken with Metrolink's chief executive and was authorized to release the basic facts of the investigation before announcing that the Metrolink driver ran a red light on the line shared by Union Pacific freighters.

That mistake apparently led to the head-on collision, something a National Transportation Safety Board investigation confirmed, Tyrrell told City News Service early Monday.

"I believe that the public should know the facts as early as possible," she said.

The Metrolink engineer, identified by friends as 46-year-old Robert Sanchez, may have been text-messaging some teenage train enthusiasts just before the collision that killed 25 people. Investigators are seeking cellular telephone records to confirm that account.

In a statement e-mailed to the news media early Monday, Tyrrell said:

"As a result of actions taken during a closed session Metrolink board of directors meeting yesterday afternoon, as well as subsequent press statements by Metrolink board members concerning me -- I have resigned my position as spokesperson for Metrolink."

A union spokesman told the Los Angeles Times it was premature to blame the engineer for the crash. He had worked for Amtrak and more recently for a private company, Veolia Transportation, that provides Metrolink with engineers.