By Madina Toure
The National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian, who lives in Forest Hills, was distracted by radio dispatches from another train when the train he was at the controls of crashed in Philadelphia last year.
Bostian, 32, was the engineer of Northeast Regional Train 188, which was traveling at 106 miles per hour—more than twice the speed limit of 50 miles per hour—as it entered a curve and derailed in Philadelphia May 12, 2015.
Eight passengers, including two from Queens, were killed and more than 180 others were sent to nearby hospitals, some with critical injuries.
Bostian’s lawyer, Robert Goggin, could not be reached for comment. Bostian’s current status as an Amtrak employee was not known.
In interviews, Bostian said he was worried about a commuter train engineer, whose engine had just been struck by an object, which caused glass from the windshield to hit the engineer, according to NTSB.
Bostian was participating in and listening to the radio communications about that emergency, which lasted six minutes and occurred less than one minute before the crash, the board said.
“It’s widely understood that every person, no matter how conscientious and skilled, is fallible, which is why technology was developed to backstop human vulnerabilities,” NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart said. “Had positive train control been in place on that stretch of track, this entirely preventable tragedy would not have happened.”
Investigators concluded that Bostian became distracted by the emergency involving the commuter train and lost situational awareness as to where his train was in relation to the curve, which has a 50 mph speed limit.
The train’s 106 mph speed was consistent with the belief that his train already had passed the curve into an area with a 110 mph speed limit, the board said.
It was also determined that some of the windows blew open and that if they had not, some passengers would have likely remained inside the train and survived.
Investigators said Bostian was “very cooperative” and that at the time of the accident, he was not impaired by any substance and was not using his cell phone, the board added. There was no evidence that he was fatigued or suffered from any pre-existing medical condition while operating the train.
The passengers killed including Far Rockaway resident Justin Zemser, 20, who was returning to Queens from his studies at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, and Manhattan resident Laura Finamore, 47, an executive at Cushman & Wakefield who grew up in Douglaston.
The complete report will be available on the National Transportation Safety Board’s website in several weeks.
The board issued 11 safety recommendations in the report, five of which were directed to the Federal Railroad Administration. Amtrak also received safety recommendations.
Since 1970, the NTSB has been recommending that technology that could prevent collisions, overspeed accidents and protect track workers be implemented on the nation’s railroads. Positive train control has been implemented on the Northeast Corridor serve since the end of the year when the the final stretch between New York and Philadelphia got the new technology.
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Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
