The findings of the National Transportation Safety Board in the case of the Sept. 12, 2008 Metrolink train crash are disappointing but, sadly, not surprising.

After a 16-month investigation, the NTSB placed the blame for the head-on collision of Metrolink 111 and a Union Pacific freight train squarely on the shoulders of engineer Robert Sanchez and not on the people who hired him.

The decision undoubtedly pleased Metrolink and Connex Railroad, which provides operating crews for Metrolink commuter trains. The operators are facing huge lawsuits from a group of crash survivors and victims’ family members who say the agencies, not Sanchez, are at fault for the wreck that killed 25 people, including 10 from Simi Valley.

Sanchez, it was reported soon after the crash, was sending text messages on his cellphone and missed signals meant to alert him of the oncoming freight train.

The more Metrolink pointed the finger at the engineer—including allegations that he’d promised a teenager a chance to operate the train—the more apparent it became that he was to be the agency’s fall guy, and the NTSB’s decision confirms it. Unfortunately, as one of the 25 who perished in the crash, Sanchez was not here to defend himself.

Disregarded in the findings was the testimony of several people on the train who said the engineer couldn’t have run a red light at the Topanga stop because, according to the eyewitnesses, the light was green. But according to the NTSB, the passengers on the train were too far away to have deciphered what color the light was. Instead, the safety board hypothesized, it was their minds “telling” them the light was green when it really wasn’t.

We’d like to be able to move on from this tragic event, to stop placing blame and to get on with the healing and policy changing. But the NTSB’s failure to put any serious blame on Metrolink for the crash is making closure difficult.

Because whether Sanchez ran a red light or he didn’t, the railroad clearly hadn’t done enough to address the issue of its conductors’ in-cabin behavior, especially regarding use of wireless devices while on the job. If they had, it’s likely the engineer would have thought twice about taking his eyes off the rail.

Regardless of the NTSB’s findings, we hope one day Metrolink officials will have the courage to own up to their mistakes and stop placing the blame for the death of 25 people on one individual.

Then we can begin to move on.