Train Accident in Philadelphia Causes Trouble
A train crash can be a scary thing. When a train crashes,there’s not much anyone can do but pray for the best. California it’s quite common for a train accident to cause a lot of trouble.
Police have been looking into a fatal crash of an Amtrak train. The crash happened in Philadelphia and they at first thought the driver was using his phone when the train derailed.
A source from the incident didn’t reveal whether the National Transportation Safety Board investigators were right or not, however the NTSB is going to make a statement regarding the crash very soon.
According to the reports, the Amtrak Northeast Regional Train No.188 derailed just minutes after it had left the Philadelphia station. The crash left eight people dead and over two hundred people injured. I bet whoever owns that train is a very stressed out man or woman.
The train was heading to New York and had just entered a curve, at 106 mph. Going through the curve the speed dropped to 50 mph. The engineer applied the emergency brakes as it had started into the curve, however the train as well as all seven passenger cars derailed despite’s the train driver’s efforts.
The authorities are still investigating the crash. Brandon Bostain, the engineer has been telling the investigating officers that he doesn’t remember anything that happened just before the crash.
NTSB Investigating Train Operator’s Phone Records
The preliminary report said that the NTSB investigators said that the forensic experts were searching Bostian’s phone records as well as his phone.
The report also said that the investigators had yet to determine anything about the phone activity yet, however the forensic experts are still investigating the records and phone.
While the investigators are working hard to find out what happened, it’s taken a while to find anything on the operator’s phone activity during the time that the train derailed.
The investigators are getting quite angry not being able to find out what really happened inside the cab of the train that day. Currently, the Amtrak trains have their camera’s facing outward. They also have a little black box aka a data recorder that will measure the train’s actions as well as the engineer.
Since this horrible crash, Amtrak has announced that they will start the process of installing the inward facing cameras as well.
Just one week after the accident, the NTSB member, Roert Sumwalk and Bostain could not remember anything other than pulling the train whistle which three miles ahead of incident.
Train Operator Proved Innocent
On the week of the accident, NTSB members Robert Sumwalt stated that driver, Bostain could not remember anything beyond pulling the whistle as he drove past the North Philadelphia station.
Bostain was of course interviewed as soon as he could be and then again on the following Friday afternoon. This was the first interview he had since the derailment of the train where eight people died and over two hundred people were injured.
Even though Bostain was very cooperative with the authorities, he had no memory of anything that happened after he passed the North Philadelphia station. According to Sumwalt, Bostain had suffered from multiple injuries, including a concussion.
According to the reports, the train’s windshield was shattered during the derailment. The FBI is taking particular interest to a lower part of the broken windshield. Sumwalt said that this particular area of concern was a “circular pattern that emanates out just a bit”.
Sumwalt’s Statement:
We’re very interested in this report. We want to learn more about it so we will use all sources of information that we can to independently validate that.
That of course includes a meeting with the engineer of the SEPTA train.
During the investigators interview, the engineer found no faults. The investigators are looking at every angle of this case, including speed and human error to track conditions. They want to know what happened that day.
However, a lot of the focus of the investigation has been on thirty-two year old Bostain. He was at the controls of the train when it went into a 50 mph curve at 106 mph. Pretty fast.
According to the operator, he wasn’t ill and did not feel tired during the run. He felt “fully qualified” he also reported no problems with his train handling.
As the driver was being question, he was very knowledgeable about the territory and where the derailment occurred. He knew the speed limits as well as several random points a long the route. He had made that run five days out of the week, so he knew it.
Crash’s Lead to Trouble
According to the news release, the NTS will reassemble the train and try to put it’s braking system together to see if that what might have caused the crash.
A former Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood stated that if the report of the projectile striking the train was true then it would be a “distraction” to the engineer.
An updated version stated that the Police have investigated an Amtrak engineer’s, Brandon Bostain, phone records to make sure that he wasn’t texting or using his phone as he was operating a train that crashed on May 12th in Philadelphia.
Amtrak’s records confirm that Bostain did not have access to the train’s Wi-Fi system while he was operating the train.
Daniel A. Gibalevich
DAG Law Firm
