Apparently the confirmed death toll is now up to 25. From the damage to the engine and Metrolink cars, it seems as if no attempt to slow down was made before the collision. I hope the cell phone texting message story isn't true and we should be careful about making assumptions until the facts are in evidence. All we know for sure is the Metrolink train ran a red signal.
Josh, as far as I can tell from the stories I've read, the UP engineer died but the conductor survived. Contrary to stories about the dipsatcher calling the UP train before the crach, scanner recordings show the first notification of the crash was the conductor calling the DS to tell him the collision had occured and requesting help.
George, it does seem like some sort of ATC should be mandatory on passenger lines that share the traffic with freight trains. It's bad enough when two freights collide but there has to more automatic safety measures in place when you've tens of thousands of people also traveling the same line.
I wonder what led up to something like this happening. I expect the details will be known soon. My prayers go out to those involved in this and their families.
