New rail safety bill - Week after Chatsworth train crash

Chatsworth, California (CFN) - The new rail safety bill comes slightly more than a week after a train crash in Chatsworth, California killed 25 people on Sept. 12. It was the nation's deadliest train accident since 1993.

The engineer involved in the deadly wreck of a Metrolink commuter train was text messaging while on duty the day of the crash, federal investigators said Wednesday.

The bill is expected to be voted on in the House of Representatives on Wednesday morning.

The agency that oversees train operations, the Federal Railroad Administration, has been operating under safety legislation that expired 14 years ago.

The new rail safety bill contains reforms that the National Transportation Safety Board has been pushing for years, The Senate Commerce Committee heard from NTSB investigators and rail officials...

Key points:

• The bill allots billions of dollars for Amtrak.
• Reduce and limit the number of hours engineers can work each week (Operator fatigue is estimated to be a contributing factor in 25 percent in serious train accidents).
• Mandate technology that can stop trains that are headed on a collision course.
• Requires rail lines to use new safety technologies.

The Committee sought to hammer out a deal on the reforms by the end of the week before Congress takes yet another break...

The Los Angeles County Coroner's office released a complete list of people killed in the Metrolink crash.

Christopher Aiken, 38

Dennis Arnold, 75

Dean Lafoy Brower, 51

Alan Lloyd Buckley, 59

Yi Chao, 71

Spree Desha, 35

Walter Arney Fuller, 54

Ronald Grace, 55

Michael Hammersly, 45

Jacob Hefter, 18

Kari Hsieh, no age given

Paul Long, no age given

Roger Spacey, 60

Ernest Stephen Kish II, 47

Gregory Lintner, 48

Manuel Macias, 31

Aida Magdaleno, 19

Beverly Mosely, 57

Charles Peck, 58

Howard Barry Pompel, 69

Donna Ramata, 49

Robert Sanchez, 46

Doyle Jay Souser, 56

Maria Elenea Villalobos, 18

Atul Vyas, 20