CLamb wrote:We only know the time until the emergency stop was activated. He could've been trying to use other malfunctioning controls in the meantime.
According to the NTSB:
"The event recorder indicated that about 38 seconds before the collision, throttle increased from idle to the #4 position while the train was traveling about 8 mph. Train speed began to increase and reached a maximum of about 21 mph while the brake pipe pressure remained unchanged."
"Just prior to the collision, the event recorder indicated that the throttle position went from #4 to idle. Engineer-induced emergency braking occured less than 1 second before the collision with the bumping post."
There is no evidence that the controls were changed between the throttle increase and the throttle decrease and emergency braking. No problems were found with the cab event recorder.