SIMI VALLEY — One local family whose loved one died in the Metrolink collision is still questioning something that happened that night. They got several phone calls from 49-year-old Chuck Peck after the crash. But they now know he died on impact. Peck’s fiancee, Andrea Katz, told KTLA that the first call was to his son in Utah. “…and he said my dad just called me and I said, what did he say? Is he okay? Where is he? He didn’t say anything, the phone rang and it said dad,” Peck’s fiance Andrea Katz told KTLA.
As firefighters worked to rescue survivors, family members said Peck’s cell phone kept calling his son, his brother, his stepmother, his sister and his fiancee. But when they answered all they heard was static. And when family members called back, the calls went straight to voice mail. In all, family members say they received about 35 calls from Peck’s cell phone through the night. Nearly five hours after the crash at 9:08 p.m., Katz received a call. “We were yelling in the phone, hang in there baby. We’re gonna get you out. You’re gonna be okay,” Katz said.
When the rescue efforts turned to recovery, there was another call, which prompted search crews to trace it. They realized it was coming from the first train so they went back in one last time. “And they were so excited they had this incredible adrenaline rush at thought that they could possibly go find another survivor… we gave her a description and they spent the next couple of hours looking for him and they did end up finding him and they said that he had died immediately on impact and there was no way he could have been calling us,” Katz said.
The calls stopped at 3:28 a.m., about an hour before Peck’s body was found.
Katz said the phone calls helped the family get through the night.
“The intellectual side of my brain thinks gee, it was a computer malfunction and then the emotional side of my brain, it was just Chuck letting us know that he knew that we were scared for him and letting us have hope.” Katz said she also finds comfort in knowing she and Peck were happy and that he didn’t suffer in the end.
“He died instantly and he didn’t suffer and when you love somebody you couldn’t ask for a better way for them to leave this life, just happy and excited and didn’t see it coming.” Investigators said they may never know how those calls were made because Peck’s phone was never found.
They also say his body showed no sign that he lived even for a short time after the crash.
Can you hear me now?
Damn, now that’s what I call coverage! I’d love to know the carrier. If they could call Christ, we might be able to clear up some long running debates. 😉
If the phone was never found, couldn’t it just be stolen? Hate to bust the bubble but… I’m a skeptic guy.
Respectfully, I hope the best for his family. May he rest in peace.
Fritz Borrego
Well… Duh!
Obvious, #3 nailed it, but it’s a no brainer, this ain’t the twilight zone and nobodys making calls from beyond.
Hell my phones always making calls without my wanting it too, I hate to block the keypad. Pity the family though, false hopes are better than no hope – at least until the truth sets in..
It is known that those who die sudden violent deaths try to contact their loved ones. The reason is said to be show the grieving family that the dead is happy and watching over them. There are many true stories regarding this in the media. This is not just random calls to people, the person is calling his closest family members. May the soul of the dead rest in peace.
maybe he was trying to use up his minites
pretty funny, can you imagine the dead being able to use the cell services, haha we’d never get any calls through
You want conspiracy? How about the phone company knowing his location via in-phone GPS and maxing out that last bill.
He had a special phone.
I had a techno-strange event… didn’t have to die for it, but unexplained none-the-less.
One night, maybe 5 years ago, I was driving back from the airport after flying home commercial from a business trip in a bad storm.
I was listening to the then smooth jazz station on the FM radio when suddenly the in-dash receiver started to rescan and reprogram the saved frequency buttons without me touching anything.
As I watched, one by one, the radio tuned itself only to Christian stations and programmed each of them into the 6 presets. The frequencies were not the first ones normally scanned nor in any other discernible pattern except for their format. The 2 lowest frequencies normally scanned are NPR, neither was programmed in on this occasion. Also, the radio skipped other stations with formats from hiphop to top 40 to classic rock to country to find only the 6 religious stations. This radio did not have a feature to identify stations by format.
After the radio finished programming the 6 Christian stations, it then started switching between them at 5 second intervals (which was a standard feature of the radio – to scan all preset stations). I have to admit, I didn’t touch the radio all the way home.
The next day, I hit scan and program and the normal stations reappeared.
But I did feel somewhat strange changing the button assignments back to my favorite stations.
It has not happened again.
Good one Jag! He had the Jeebus phone.
#10 – You had the Jeebus radio.
#10 – RSweeney
It might have something to do with your car…
#11 – Mister Letchup
Thanks. 🙂 You’ve must have gotten up the ranks, Ketchup. Next time, Metchup?! 😉 😀
#10 Many radio stations shatre the same emitter towers, you were probrably close to one when the storm hit. Interference and/or power outages from the storm made that tower the only thing available. Not really mysterious, just irritating, you’re driving through a storm and trying to listen to the doors and boom – sermon time.
So, does McCollough listen to Coast to Coast AM?
Replies…
The storm was in-route in the air, not at home.
No power failures, no dead spots on the way home as I have driven it many times.
The car was a 10 year old Ford Explorer 4×4 and as I recall the receiver was a Pioneer, not exactly divine.
#14 – It must be a peech inspediment. 🙂
Why does my phone never work while I’m alive ?
#19. Good point. I have the same problem…..ah, fuck em, who needs em anyway.
#16. Sure, why not?
my phone has made so many butt calls, it’s unbelievable. I guess the speed dial assumption is the only one to pass occam’s razor.
pj
When we will begin to understand these mysterious new technologies?
Easy to say now that it is a phone malfunction but what if they finally recover the phone and it is in bits and pieces…
Lots of people once thought the world was flat folks…