Philadelphia
Mayor Michael Nutter blasted Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian on Wednesday over reports indicating the catastrophic Amtrak train crash was caused by excessive speed, but a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator says it's far too early to be pointing fingers.
"Clearly it was reckless in terms of the driving by the engineer," Nutter told
CNN Wednesday, after the NTSB said initial data showed the train was traveling at more than 100 miles per hour when it hit the curve in the tracks, which has a speed limit of 50 miles per hour.
"There's no way in the world he should have been going that fast into the curve," Nutter said. "I don't know what was going on with him (the engineer). I don't know what was going on in the cab. But there's really no excuse that can be offered, literally, unless he had a heart attack."
But Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB's lead investigator, said Nutter's comments were inflammatory, as the agency wants to "get the facts before we start making judgments."
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Bostian's attorney, Robert Goggin, told
ABC News on Wednesday that the engineer, 32, has neither an explanation nor
recollection of the crash. He's provided a blood sample, turned in his cellphone and is cooperating, Goggin said.
Bostian does remember driving the train to the crash area and getting "tossed around," and later found his cellphone and called an emergency rescue number. The engineer suffered a concussion and a head wound requiring 14 staples, as well as injuries to his legs, Goggin told ABC.
Sumwalt said that the crash, which was Amtrak's ninth this year, may have been prevented if an automated speed control system, called positive train control, had been installed on the section of track just outside Philadelphia where the crash occurred.
On CNN's "New Day" program Thursday morning, Sumwalt told host Chris Cuomo that the NTSB wants to interview Bostian to find out his perspective, but also wants to determine the mechanical condition of the train, the signal system and the tracks, "to look at everything that could have led to the occurrence."
However, he said that Bostian's statement about not remembering what happened just before the crash is not unusual in a traumatic situation.
"It's not uncommon when somebody's been through a traumatic event such as this one here that they don't remember things leading up to the accident," Sumwalt said.
Amtrak is required to run toxicology reports, said Sumwalt, and Bostian can retain his right not to participate in the NTSB's investigation. "But in most transportation accidents, people will talk to the NTSB because we're interested in nothing more than improving the safety of our transportation system," he said.
While there are some who will push back and blame the engineer, "the fact is, humans make mistakes," said Sumwalt. "And positive train control — which is required by law to be implemented by the end of this year — positive train control is designed to prevent the very type of an accident that we're dealing with here."
The system slows down trains, so if there is a human error, "the positive train control will kick in and say 'I'm not going to let you make that mistake to hurt us all,'" said Sumwalt.
He said that Bostian put on his emergency brakes in the moments before the derailment. The speed limit just before the curve was 80 miles an hour, and the train was traveling at 106 miles per hour when it hit the bend.
The NTSB has long recognized that positive train control saves lives, and most of the tracks in Amtrak's northeastern sector are covered, but the system had not been installed yet at the crash site. The train control technology is to be installed on the nation's train tracks by year's end, said Sumwalt, but has not gone into place in many places yet.
Amtrak plans limited service on Thursday in parts of the Northeast Corridor, on routes between Washington and Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia, and New York and Boston, CNN reported.
No service will be available between New York and Philadelphia, however, and New Jersey Transit will honor Amtrak tickets between New York City and Trenton.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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