Cellphones should be banned ...............

And this is why

DEADLY COLLISION - Rescue crews continue to work on the wreckage of a Metrolink commuter train, Saturday in Chatsworth. Emergency crews found more victims early Saturday in the mangled wreckage of the commuter train that smashed head-on into a freight train, raising the death toll to 25 in the deadliest U.S. passenger train accident in 15 years.

Valley teen among train wreck deaths

Palmdale High graduate was award winner, star student
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley PressSunday, September 14, 2008.
By DENNIS ANDERSON and CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Valley Press Editors

CHATSWORTH - An 18-year-old Palmdale college student on his way to visit his girlfriend was among the two dozen Metrolink train passengers killed in Friday's head-on collision with a freight train.
Jacob Hefter, a 2008 Palmdale High School honor graduate who had just started his freshman year at California State University Long Beach, was identified Saturday as one of the casualties of the train wreck, which was described as the worst in the United States in 15 years.
"He was one of our simply greatest examples from the academy," said Mike Hanlon, who was one of Hefter's instructors at Palmdale High's Health Careers Academy. "He was a sharp kid."
Hefter was due to get off the train at the next stop, Hanlon said.
Minutes earlier he had called his girlfriend, a California State University, Northridge student, to let her know he was arriving, his former teacher said.
Hefter had attended Health Careers Academy classes all four years at Palmdale High. At Cal State Long Beach, he was majoring in physical therapy.
Funeral arrangements have not been settled, but relatives expects a service to be held late this week.
An informal memorial service is scheduled from 6 to about 7:30 p.m. today in the gymnasium at Palmdale High, 2137 East Ave. R, according to family friend and Palmdale High teacher Deb DiMeglio.
"It will just be an opportunity for anybody to come and share anything and express any feelings that they have," DiMeglio said.
Hefter and his two older brothers, Jordan and Jared, grew up in Palmdale, the sons of Alan and Angela Hefter. Their mother is a Health Careers Academy coordinator. For three consecutive years, Hefter won a medal in cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the state Health Occupation Students of America competition, Hanlon said. Last spring he was honored as one of the Antelope Valley's high school graduates with 4.0 grade-point averages.
Last January, Hefter and three classmates organized Palmdale High's two-day "Every 15 Minutes" presentation, which staged a simulated car crash outside the campus to illustrate the dangers of drinking and driving.
In March, he and other Palmdale High emergency medical technician class students went through a training session at the Los Angeles County Fire Department's North County Training Center, where they practiced removing a mannequin from a wrecked vehicle.
At the Chatsworth wreck, search teams completed their recovery of bodies by midafternoon Saturday, at which time the fatality count was put at 24. That total later grew to 25 when another victim died in a hospital.
A total of 135 people were injured, with 81 transported to hospitals in serious or critical condition. There was no overall condition update available Saturday, but a telephone survey of five hospitals found nine of 34 patients still critical, The Associated Press reported.
The crash was reported at 4:23 p.m. Friday on a curving section of track near Heather Lee Lane, south of the 118 Freeway and east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, City News Service reported.
The Metrolink locomotive engine was pulling the passenger train, and when it smashed into the freight train, the locomotive was forced backward into the trailing passenger car, and both toppled over, igniting flames. At least seven cars from the freight train derailed, although most remained standing in accordion fashion across the tracks. Both trains were traveling at about 40 mph.
City News Service quoted a Metrolink spokeswoman as saying that the Metrolink engineer apparently made the mistake that caused the head-on collision.
Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrell said it appeared that a contract employee failed to wait at a siding for the freight train to pass.
"We are deeply sorry and we are totally at a loss, this is a new situation for Metrolink," Tyrell said.
"At this moment we must acknowledge that it was a Metrolink engineer that made the error that caused yesterday's accident."
National Transportation Safety Administration officials are investigating the crash. NTSB officials says two data recorders have been recovered from the wrecked Metrolink engine, and a combination video/data recorder has been recovered from the wrecked Union Pacific locomotive.
No final determination of the cause of the wreck is expected for a year, NTSB officials said

















The driver of this trian was text messaging, his last message went out at 4:29pm and the crash accourd at 4:30pm. He failed to stop at the red light given to him at the station to wait for the frieght train to pass. 222 people on the metro and 3 on the frieght train, 135 where injured and 25 dead, among them Jacob who was 18 and another student who was also 18.


I knew jacob and his family, his mom was my teacher in high school. it sickens me that some one willing risked the lives of others for his own entertainment. Jacob had just graduated this past may.