Cell Phone of Driver in Amtrak Crash Found
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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)
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.