Davis Law Group, P.S.

Texing While Driving May Have Contributed To Train Crash

Investigators are checking reports that text messages may have contributed to Friday's Los Angeles-area train crash. 

Apparently a few train enthusiasts told a television stations that they received text messages from the train's engineer just moments before the commuter train sped through a red light and crashed into an oncoming freight train.

The Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train on Friday just outside Los Angeles. At least 25 people, including the engineer, died. Another 138 were injured.

On Monday the California Public Utilities Commission said it would seek to reinforce a ban on personal use of cell phones by train operators. Most companies running train services prohibit engineers from texting while driving.

Washington state outlawed texting while driving in 2007.

A survey by Harris Interactive last year showed that 92% of Americans think driving while distracted by text messages or e-mail is as dangerous as driving after drinking alcoholic beverages, but many people who think it's dangerous do it anyway.

Eighty-nine percent of American adults think it should be outlawed, but 66% of adults who drive and have used text messages admitted reading them while driving. Fifty-seven percent of the same group said they sent messages or texts while driving.

The worst offenders are adults between the ages of 18 and 34. They accounted for 64% of adults who admitted to sending text messages while driving.