Witnesses: Commuter train had green light

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Three witnesses say a commuter train had a green light as it headed toward a fatal collision with a freight train last month, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The observers say they were at the Chatsworth, Calif., Metrolink station before the crash, which killed 25 people and injured more than 130 others, and that they saw the final railroad signal as the commuter train headed toward the place where it collided with a Union Pacific freight train.

One of the witnesses is a station security guard and another is a retiree who says a federal investigator has interviewed him. The statements are at odds with a National Transportation Safety Board finding that the signal was red when engineer Robert Sanchez drove the Metrolink train past a switch and into the freight train.

Sanchez was sending text messages moments before the crash, investigators said Wednesday. However, investigators had not determined whether Sanchez was using his cell phone to send messages when he went through the signal before the crash.

Sanchez, who was killed in the crash, sent text messages throughout his shift but it was unclear who he was contacting. There have been reports teenage boys claim to have been exchanging messages with him shortly before the accident.