WASHINGTON — A minimum of two employees in the cabs of all passenger, freight and commuter trains could help avoid accidents like the one in California last year that killed 25 people and injured at least 130, union officials told a federal safety panel today.

Often an engineer works alone in the locomotive cab while the conductor is performing other duties inside the train. That was the case last September when a Metrolink passenger train ended up on the same shared track with a Union Pacific freight train and the two slammed head-on at about 40 mph.

"There are occasions where something's going to happen. A second set of eyes, in our opinion, would go a long way in preventing accidents," said William Walpert of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

He testified on the second day of the National Transportation Safety Board's hearing on the crash.

On Tuesday, federal investigators released the transcript of text messages sent and received by engineer Robert Sanchez as the NTSB opened its hearing on the collision. The board is not expected to issue a final report for a few months.

A supervisor says the engineer in the crash was warned twice about cell phone use while on duty. Despite that warning, the engineer sent and received 43 text messages and made four phone calls the day of the collision, federal records show.

By The Associated Press