A few days after a train wreck in Chatsworth, California resulted in the death of 25 people, reports began circulating that the crash may have been caused in part by an engineer's use of a cell phone. The National Transportation Safety Board today obtained the engineer's cell phone records for the day of the crash through a subpoena. The NTSB confirmed that he had, in fact, been sending text messages around the time of the accident.

"On the day of the accident, the Metrolink engineer was on duty for two periods of time," said the NTSB in a statement issued today. "The engineer was responsible for the operation of a train from 6:44 am until 8:53 am. During this period of time, the engineer's cell phone received 21 text messages and sent 24 text messages."

The organization noted that while "the precise timing and correlation of these events is still underway at the Safety Board's Recorder Laboratory," it could confirm that the engineer had set them approximately around the time of the accident.

"He was then off duty until 2:00 pm," the statement continued. "The engineer was responsible for the operation of Metrolink train 111 from 3:03 pm until the time of the accident. During this time period, the engineer's cell phone received 7 text messages and sent 5 text messages. According to the time on the cell phone provider's records, the last text message received by the engineer's phone before the accident was at 4:21:03 pm, and the last text message sent from the engineer's cell phone was 4:22:01 pm."

The current estimate for the time of the crash, according to Union Pacific, is 4:22:23 pm.