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In a heartbreaking and bewildering night for his relatives, one father-of-three's mobile continued trying to contact his family following his tragic death in a train collision.

Charles E Peck was amongst those who diedin the catastrophic San Fernando Valley Metrolink incident which came to be known as the Chatsworth crash.

Peck was recently engaged to Andrea Katz and the 49-year-old had three youngsters from a former marriage.

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On 12 September 2008 at 4:22pm the passenger train transporting 225 travellers collided at a combined velocity of 83 mph with a cargo train operated by a three-person crew, according to Snopes.

Tragically, there were 135 individuals wounded, 87 of whom were taken to hospital, with 46 in critical condition. Devastatingly, 25 died, reports the Mirror US.

Peck, a customer service representative for Delta Air Lines at Salt Lake City International Airport died on impact. However, eerily, his mobile phone told a different story.

The 49 year old had travelled to Los Angeles for a job interview at Van Nuys Airport - he was seeking fresh employment in California so he could wed his Westlake Village fiancée.

Horrifically, Katz discovered the crash on the radio whilst she was travelling to collect Peck from the station. She was with his parents and siblings.

Distressingly, his family began to receive telephone calls from Peck. For 11 hours they were bombarded with agonising calls from his phone, ringing his son, his brother, his stepmother, his sister, and his fiancée.

A disturbing total of 35 calls from the phone were made throughout the night - whilst his family remained unsure whether he was dead or alive. The phone calls provided the grieving relatives with hope that he was still living and merely trapped.

Upon answering the mysterious calls, all they could hear was static, and when they rang back, the calls went directly to voicemail.

Eventually, Peck's body was retrieved from the wreckage 12 hours following the accident.

The flurry of calls prompted search teams to track the location of the phone through its signal and to examine once more what remained of the first train, the place from which the calls were originating.

The searchers ultimately located Peck's body roughly an hour after the calls from his mobile phone ended.

Chillingly, it was revealed Peck died on impact - and his phone continued working beyond his death to contact those he cherished most.

Crucially, these calls also ensured his body was found, though his phone was never recovered.

A preliminary inquiry into the deadliest incident in Metrolink's history determined that the engineer operating the commuter train had failed to acknowledge a red signal.

This resulted in the train entering a single track with the Union Pacific freight train that had been given clearance.