PHILADELPHIA — For a second time, criminal charges have been dropped against the engineer of an Amtrak train involved in a fatal derailment in Philadelphia in 2015.
Charges against Brian Bostian, 36, were dropped after Court of Common Pleas Judge Barbara McDermott ruled that the engineer’s actions did not rise to the level of criminal recklessness, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. “The law recognizes we’re all human,” McDermott said, according to the newspaper. “The law recognizes there is the occasional case where a departure from the rule may be appropriate.”
Eight people were killed and more than 150 injured on May 12, 2015, when Amtrak train No. 188 reached 106 mph, more than twice the posted speed limit, before entering a curve. [See “NTSB: Amtrak 188’s engineer lost ‘situational awareness,’ Trains News Wire, May 17, 2016.] Bostian was facing 216 counts of reckless endangerment, one count of causing a catastrophe, and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Christopher Phillips, a deputy attorney general with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, indicated the office would appeal the decision.
Responding to a judge’s order, the attorney general’s office first charged Bostian in May 2017 — days after saying it would not do so. [See “Pennsylvania judge orders charges leveled at Amtrak 188 engineer,” Trains News Wire, May 12, 2017.} Those charges were dropped in September 2017 by Judge Thomas Gehret [see “Judge dismisses criminal charges in 188 crash,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 12, 2017]. But charges were reinstated several months later by Judge Kathryn S. Lewis, who ruled the previous judge had erred and there was sufficient evidence to go to trial. [See “Charges reinstated against engineer in Amtrak 188 crash,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 6, 2018.]
Well, I’ll assume no matter the legal outcome, Mr.Bostian won’t be operating a train ever again and hopefully that will be enough.
I feel bad for Bostian. But not as bad as I feel for those he killed and injured due to his “mistake”. I believe Bostian should be held to a higher standard than a typical person. He was a professional. He was trained and paid to do the job. He had a responsibility to the people on that train. He failed to do his job and caused the people in his care to be injured and killed. I believe punishment is appropriate.
From what I have read, Bostian was a dedicated employee whose dream was to be an engineer. That makes the whole thing even more tragic. And yes, there were other circumstances involved. I think “legal hell,” is a good way to put it and enough should be enough.
I think Bostian has been punished enough by going through prosecution hell for the last four years. He also must live with the fact that he killed 8 people and severely injured many others. What he has been through was very necessary to tell all operating personnel “Don’t let this happen to you”. Also, I don’t think the families that lost loved ones will drop this. Civil suits are probably on the horizon if not already filed.
Replying to the ACS-64 control comment below; yes, the ACS-64 has modern controls where you push a lever forward to move forward, back to slow. However, the AEM-7, Acela and HHP-8 have similar controls. This gives Amtrak some 39 years of experience with this type of controller.
I believe the last passenger motors with conventional control stands were the E60’s, which were retired in 2003.
FYI, GG1’s have a 22-notch (I believe) ratchet controller.
PAUL – I feel for Brandon Bostock who flupped up at the end of a Green Bay Packers playoff game. If his flub had come in Week One or Week Two, it wouldn’t have followed him for the rest of his life long after that playoff game. The Packers had about a chance in a hundred of winning that game. Bostock’s life was destroyed because in a bonehead play he took a one percent chance down to zero.
It’s like Eddie Murray – Detroit Lions – missing a kick in the 1983 playoff game. It was Eddie Murray who’d gotten the Lions to the playoff in the first place.
Every day I make several small or large bonehead errors of judgment or have moments of inattention. Today on the bike in Waukesha I was looking down the road and missed a car backing out of a residential driveway, almost hitting me. Each day, I might do two or three or four things that stupid. Who am I to judge Brandon Bostock or Brian Bostian? Brandon blew a playoff game (or was so blamed – the Packers’ chance of winning was indeed tiny). Eddie Murray blew a playoff game in 1983. Brian Bostian wrecked a train and got a lot of people killed and almost bankrupted Amtrak. None of those people were any more inattentive than I am on a daily basis. My errors are of little consequence and no one needs to know of them. But I know.
Bostock’s blame for that horrible horrible loss is actually a decent analogy for the Amtrak hogger. You can indeed point to one factor (the human error) as a root cause for a tragedy, but it’s not the only root cause you can pick.
In Bostian’s case there was IIRC some extenuating circumstances around rock throwers that could’ve caused lack of situational awareness. Not to mention the partial one direction only lack of PTC installation at a restricted speed curve.
Is it true this throttle lever works in opposite to all other motive power? Some push forward to acierate and other push forward to stop, or pull back to acierate. When ducking the bullets he lost track of which kind of locomotive he was operating.
The Philadelphia DA declined to prosecute. The US Attorney (it was an interstate train) declined to prosecute. Only the PA Attorney General, who has secondary jurisdiction, insists on prosecuting. So far, two trial judges have dismissed the case presented by the PA AG. .
Oh, sorry, it’s BRIAN Bostian. I confused his name with BRANDON Bostock, formerly of the Green Bay ackers. No doubt I’m senile.
Oh, Anna, Anna, Anna, my dear sweet West Coast buddy. Where does it say I dislike attorneys? They have their job to do, like garbagemen and combat medics.
But Anna, Anna, Anna, at least you read my post. Made my day.
Best,
C.N.L.
Charles, why do you so dislike attorneys?
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
AL and GARY – Would I trust Brain Bostian? From what I know of his character, yes. From what I know of his attention span and his physical ability to stay awake on the job, I simply have no way of knowing. I’m not a neurologist. If I were a neurologist, I wouldn’t have examined him.
Can he ever be hired again to operate a train or any other machinery? No, because if anything did happen (no matter the cause or if Brian were at fault) the employer would be liable for GROSS NEGLIGENCE for having hired him. A trespasser could sit in a lawn chair on the tracks. His lawyer would say, Not my client’s fault, Brandon Bostian was driving the train.
I could draw a rough parallel in my own case. Late one afternoon I was driving home. Had I been drinking? Yes, a little bit and much earlier in the day. I wasn’t over the limit then, earlier in the day, and certainly not that late in the afternoon when I put the key in the ignition.
On the way home, bad stuff happened, not once but twice. Once on IH 41 in Greenfield (Wisconsin), then a few miles later exiting onto USH 18 in Wauwatosa, I almost got into two accidents, neither one remotely my fault and each of them the fault of other drivers. Luckily, I made it home without a scrape on the car. But suppose on or the other accident actually had happened. The Milwaukee County sheriff or Wauwatosa police comes up to me and would say, “Have you been drinking?” The answer would be, yes, I had been. For the first time in my life, I would have had to blow. The blow would register at zero, but I’d never forgive myself for being in the situation.
In this litigation climate, one just can’t take the risk.
Hey Dicenso, never screwed up anything, huh. If Amtrak reinstated Brandon there are a whole lot of guys including myself that would be proud and honored to work with him again without question. I’m betting you never worked for the RR or with a good crew so you really don’t know what you are talking about.
JEFFREY – My thoughts exactly.
Hopefully he will never operate a locomotive again.
Judge shopping at its worse.
a terrible accident. Not a criminal act. He has been punished enough.