Sacramento Regional Transit has a nine- second mystery on its hands.
It's the black hole at the center of a fatal July light-rail crash, and it's not sitting well with some RT employees and riders.
RT officials say a train windshield video camera shows maintenance worker Troy Schafer – a big man in an orange shirt – walking toward the tracks for nine seconds before the train hit him.
He had parked a clearly visible RT maintenance truck near the tracks just beyond the Watt Avenue West station, and got out a grease gun to lubricate the rails.
The operator told investigators she was looking through the windshield, wasn't distracted, but didn't see him.
RT officials aren't buying it. They have taken steps to fire her, and she has filed an appeal, according to union head Vic Guerra.
The RT investigation determined the train operator had sent text messages with her cell phone – against RT policy – four minutes before the incident.
There is no evidence of her texting during the crash, officials say, but the alarm is sounding here and elsewhere about trains and cell phones:
Investigators say a Los Angeles commuter train operator was sending text messages last month when he missed a stop light and smashed into a freight train, killing 25 and injuring 130.
Cell phone use also is suspected during a June collision between two San Francisco Muni trains, injuring a dozen people.
The Federal Railroad Administration last week issued an emergency cell phone ban for train operators.
The California Public Utilities Commission did the same a few weeks earlier.
Congress voted last week to require passenger trains eventually to have computer controls that will override inattentive operators.
Meanwhile, RT is feeling the emotional aftermath.
RT employees gave agency head Mike Wiley a grilling last week during an internal meeting, dissatisfied with the lack of an answer.
Reading between the lines, Wiley and other RT executives appear to share the frustration.
They conducted a reenactment and say there seems to be no reason for the operator to miss seeing Schafer if she was paying attention.
Schafer's widow, meanwhile, is upset that RT is putting half the blame on her husband for failing to watch out.
The train operator is in counseling for emotional distress, union officials say.
And some readers report they've seen bus drivers on cell phones.
"They shouldn't even bring their cell phones to the bus," rider Darryl Flores of Del Paso Heights said. "If they have a policy, they need to follow it."
RT Chief Operating Officer Mark Lonergan said bus and train operators are reminded during annual refresher courses about cell phone use.
RT is conducting a review of its safety policies, Lonergan said, but the agency has no plans to take extra steps to discourage cell phone use.
Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.
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