Train Signal OK in Recent Inspection

State and federal authorities investigating last week’s train collision in Fullerton that injured 19 commuters said Monday the track’s signal system has no recent history of problems.

No defects were found in the signal system when it was inspected by railroad safety engineers with the state Public Utilities Commission earlier this year, federal records show.

“We have no record of complaints. I know of nothing in the recent or distant past” to indicate that any signals had malfunctioned, said Tom Hunt, the PUC’s senior transportation operations supervisor in Los Angeles.

Hunt and his crew are assisting the federal National Transportation Safety Board investigation into Thursday morning’s collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train.

Jim Southworth, the NTSB’s lead inspector on the case, said the initial findings of the investigation do not indicate that a mechanical or a signal failure was a factor in the collision.

“Obviously, we’ll be looking into how human error might fit into this,” Southworth said.

Still, he cautioned that the inquiry is still in the preliminary stages and that it’s too early to draw any conclusion.

Investigators are conducting a detailed inspection of the signaling system. They’re also checking the work history of the engineers and railway dispatchers and trying to determine if the rising sun could have obstructed the Metrolink engineer’s ability to see the signals, Southworth said.

Burlington Northern spokeswoman Lena Kent last week said the freight train, which is operated by Burlington Northern and was switching tracks when the collision occurred, had a “green light” to proceed. She said the Metrolink train should have received a caution signal warning of traffic ahead.

Rail union officials in Orange County and Los Angeles say that stretch of track is notorious for having signal problems, including weak signal lights that are difficult to see.

“We’ve always had complaints,” said Mike Castenada, chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Local 662.

Castenada said most of the complaints have come from engineers traveling west on the railway. The Metrolink train involved in the collision was eastbound.

The Metrolink engineer involved in the collision, Harvey Wong of Carlsbad, an employee of Amtrak, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Amtrak spokesman Dominick Albano declined to comment on the incident, but said the engineers involved in collisions are routinely placed on paid administrative leave for at least a month, or until the cause of the collision is determined.