The National Transportation Safety Board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to detail the probable cause of last year’s deadly Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. The cause won’t be determined officially until the board votes after its meeting.
The NTSB Amtrak derailment was may have been caused by engineer Brandon Bostian’s “loss of situational awareness,” investigators said. The agency has spent the last 12 months working to determine why the Amtrak Northeast Regional train derailed in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia on May 12, 2015, killing eight and injuring hundreds.
Boston told investigators after the derailment that he remembered radio traffic that night from a commuter train operator who said a rock had shattered his windshield. He said he was concerned about the welfare of the commuter train’s engineer and “a little bit concerned” for his own safety, but he never indicated in either NTSB interview that his train had been struck too.
The train from Washington D.C. to New York’s Penn Station was traveling 106 miles per hour, more than twice the speed limit, when it took a curve, sending all seven train cars and the engine off the tracks. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudsen said the agency would not comment ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.
Bostian’s attorney did not immediately return an email sent after business hours on Monday. An Amtrak spokesman said the agency will have a comment after the hearing.
Investigators also believe there were some issues with the train’s emergency windows and several people were killed because they were ejected through them. The NTSB is expected to recommend that engineers be retrained about distractions and also recommend that the city wait for ambulances to take injured people to the hospital at mass-casualty incidents.
Just 23 of the 185 hospitalized in the crash were taken in an ambulance, according to NTSB data. The rest were taken by other means, such as city buses, police cars or vans. The NTSB found that just three of the 43 seriously injured passengers had an ambulance transport chart.
The city’s office of emergency management is finalizing a revised mass-casualty plan that will continue to allow police to transport victims, but will aim for better coordination with the fire department, said spokeswoman Noelle Foizen.
Bostian, regarded by friends for his safety-mindedness and love of railroading, has been suspended without pay since the crash. A letter from Amtrak in the NTSB files shows he was suspended for speeding.
Bostian’s attorney did not immediately return an email sent after business hours on Monday. An Amtrak spokesman said the agency will have a comment after the hearing.
