
Claim: A man’s cell phone placed calls to his loved ones after his demise.
TRUE
Origins: On 12 September 2008 at
One of the deceased was 49-year-old
union.
His fiancée heard about the crash from a news report on the radio as she was driving to the train station to pick up her intended. Peck’s parents and siblings (who live in the
Peck’s body was recovered from the wreckage
The barrage of calls prompted search crews to trace the whereabouts of the phone through its signal and to once again look through what was left of the first train, the location the calls were coming from. The calls searchers finally found Peck’s body about an hour after the calls from his cell phone stopped.
Charles Peck had died on impact. Yet long past his death, his cell phone had continued to reach out to many of those he cared most about, and ultimately led rescuers to his mortal remains. (As far as investigators revealed, they never found Peck’s cell phone.)
Ironically (and tragically), another cell phone may have played a pivotal role in causing the Chatsworth crash, the deadliest in Metrolink’s history. Preliminary investigation revealed the engineer running the commuter train had failed to heed a red signal light, instead impelling his train onto a single track where a Union Pacific freight train coming the opposite direction had been given the right of way. According to teens cooperating with the investigation, they had been exchanging text messages with that engineer as the train left the station and received a final text message from him just before the collision
Barbara “for whom the ma bell tolls” Mikkelson
Last updated: 15 August 2014
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Linthicum, Kate. “In from Utah for Job Interview, He Was on Way to Meet Fiancee.” Los Angeles Times. 17 September 2008 (p. B3). Lopez, Robert. “Metrolink Collision: NTSB Tries to Sort It All Out.” Los Angeles Times. 20 September 2008 (p. B8). CNN. “Engineer Sent Text 22 Seconds Before Fatal Train Crash.” 1 October 2008. The [Los Angeles] Daily News. “PUC Bans Cell-Phone Use by Train Operators.” 19 September 2008. KTLA-TV [Los Angeles]. “Train Victim’s Cell Kept Calling Loved Ones After He Died.” 17 September 2008. The Salt Lake Tribune. “Utah Man Killed in California Train Wreck.” 14 September 2008.