Sacramento Regional Transit officials confirmed today that a light rail operator had used her cell phone -- against agency rules -- while working the July day her train struck and killed another RT employee.
But RT officials said they have no evidence the operator was using the phone when the incident occurred.
Those comments appear to be at odds with statements made Thursday by an official of the California Public Utilities Commission, who said a cell phone was "implicated" in the accident.
PUC official Richard Clark made brief reference to the Sacramento light rail incident during a commission hearing discussing a ban on cell phone use by transit operators in the wake of last week's Los Angeles Metrolink commuter train crash.
RT employee Troy Steven Schafer, 40, of Rocklin, was killed by a light rail train while he was lubricating tracks east of the Watt/I-80 West light rail station on July 24.
RT operations chief Mark Lonergan today said a review by both RT and PUC officials of the train operator's phone records indicate she was not talking on her phone when the train hit Schafer.
Lonergan said the train operator also told investigators she was not using her cell phone to type or read text messages when the accident happened.
"She says absolutely not," Lonergan said. The agency does not have a way of corroborating that, he added.
That operator has been taken off train operation duty since the July fatality.
Lonergan and RT attorneys say they have written a preliminary report on the incident, but they refused today to make the report available to the Bee.
The Bee filed a California Public Records Act request to obtain a copy of the report.
RT officials today also declined to discuss their conclusions about the cause of the crash.
Lonergan said agency officials plan to brief Schafer's family next week, before making their findings public.
Schafer's widow, Donna Schafer, said RT officials have told her they disagree with the PUC comments and want a meeting next week to tell her what their investigation found.
"They said they need to go over the report with us," she said. "I've been waiting."
PUC officials today declined to elaborate on comments made Thursday by Clark, the PUC's consumer protection division chief, until a report on the incident is issued next week.
PUC spokesman Andrew Kotch, however, said Clark's use of the word "implicated" when referring to the cell phone should not be taken to mean the PUC has determined the cell phone caused the July light rail incident.
The PUC on Thursday issued a temporary ban on the personal use of cell phones in California by rail operators while their trains are moving.
The PUC ban was prompted, officials said, by concerns stemming from the Sacramento incident, a San Francisco bus crash, and the Metrolink commuter train crash in Los Angeles last week that killed 26 people.
Federal investigators are looking into reports that the operator of the Metrolink train was using a cell phone and failed to notice red stop signals on the tracks.
"Because of the possible danger to passengers, the general public, and the railroad workers themselves, prohibiting the personal use of cellular devices is necessary and reasonable," PUC President Michael R. Peevey said.
Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.
