The News always treats it as the railroad's fault. No need to get exercised over that; it'll never change.

The Black Box (which of course isn't usually black) will tell them when and where the brakes went into emergency. I don't see that as especially relevant information for determining the cause of the wreck, which is pretty obvious. And unless trains are limited to speeds they can stop from between the whistle post and the crossing, I don't see PTC helping in this kind of situation either. The gates came down as required, "trapping" (though if there was any trapping done it was due to the traffic given information provided in later articles) the car in the crossing. At that point, the crash was going to happen regardless of what the train operator did.

I'm sure NTSB will make snide comments about the seating, assuming some of the injuries/deaths had to do with getting thrown around inside the train. They always do. They'll probably also comment upon the inability of the MU car structure to withstand skewering by the 3rd rail, and upon use of 3rd rail power in general. It's in their nature.

Metrolink in LA replaced their seats with high-back, bolt-upright, tight-fitting things that are horribly uncomfortable for crash safety reasons - I don't wish them on anybody else! And in the Rotem cab cars everybody DOES sit facing backward when the cab car is leading. Fortunately, they haven't had any wrecks bad enough to really test the changes since doing them. Wonder if the uncomfortable seating has any connection with their recent declining ridership - probably less so than the economy in general, but possible?