Rob Sanchez was busy on September 12, 2008. At 4:22 pm Rob sent a text message to Nick Williams that reads as follows: “yea…usually @ north camarillo”.

If Rob was a juggler a ball may have dropped, If Rob was jogging he may have stumbled and if Rob was a Metrolink Engineer he would have killed 25 passengers.

What happened at 4:23 pm was described by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as “one of the worst train accidents in modern history in California,”. Rob was the Engineer of Ventura County Line train No. 111 and his one-step removed employers were quick to throw Mr. Sanchez under the proverbial train as they have declared that he missed a series of two yellow and a final red warning lights alerting him that a train was coming in the other direction.

It will take the National Traffic Safety Board nearly a year to complete the investigation yet officials at California’s Metrolink completed theirs in a matter of hours. Rob’s friends say he would never run a red light. Metrolink officials say it’s not their fault and the NTSB says they will find out what happened.

The important thing here is to recognize that even though Rob was texting it is quite possible that other things may have contributed to the crash. More importantly, is the use of communications equipment business as usual or was Rob violating company policy? If Metrolink engineers have a history of text messaging while driving, Metrolink is just as guilty as Rob Sanchez. Unfortunately for Mr. Sanchez his side of the story will never be heard.

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