June 27: Jennifer Morrison, investigator from the NTSB, briefs the media on the wreckage recovery efforts of the 2008 Peterbilt 367 truck-tractor at the Nevada Department of Transportation maintenance facility in Fallon, Nev. (AP)
RENO, Nev. – Federal investigators say the cell phone of the truck driver involved in a deadly collision with an Amtrak train has been recovered at the crash site in Nevada.
National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener (way-nur) said Monday that Lawrence Valli's cell phone is being sent to the agency's laboratory in Washington, D.C., to determine if it was a distraction.
He says investigators want to know whether Valli was preparing to send a text message or talking to anyone before his semitrailer slammed into an Amtrak passenger car on Friday at a crossing about 70 miles east of Reno. The accident killed the driver and at least five people on the train.
An Amtrak spokesman says only two passengers remain unaccounted for, though investigators aren't sure they were on the train at the time of the crash.
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