Amtrak Derailment Outside Philadelphia

There's a piece on the Amtrak 188 derailment in the New York Times Magazine today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01...k-of-amtrak-188.html

I hope that they find that Mr. Bostian was not negligent or reckless.

Thank you Matt. I just read the piece. It did leave me with a lump in my throat thinking of the tragedy the relatives are experiencing.  I also do hope that Brandon Bastion, the engineer, is found not to be negligent or reckless. 

Well done article to be sure.....

Peter

Wow - That is a terrific article.  It was a tragic accident that shows how a moment of inattention, whatever the cause, can have terrible consequences.  I believe that I read somewhere that Amtrak now has positive train control on this section of track.

I don't understand why Amtrak would accelerate out of one curve only to break hard for the next one just a few seconds later.  I know it saves time but adding a minute to the schedule seems to be a safer bet. 

NH Joe

I'm not quite getting why it's hoped the engineer would not be found negligent or reckless.  The train was accelerating going into that curve, was it not?  Isn't the engineer responsible for the control of the train he's assigned to?

It was going into a curve at about double the posted limit.  How is that not negligent or reckless?

Eddie Marra posted:

I'm not quite getting why it's hoped the engineer would not be found negligent or reckless.  The train was accelerating going into that curve, was it not?  Isn't the engineer responsible for the control of the train he's assigned to?

It was going into a curve at about double the posted limit.  How is that not negligent or reckless?

Nothing will bring back the eight people killed, nothing will likely reduce the anguish & grief felt by both the families of those killed & the engineer. The engineer has lost a career that was a fulfillment of his lifelong dream & will likely be tormented with guilt for the rest of his life. Out of compassion & sympathy for the both the families & the engineer, I hope that the cause of the lack of situational awareness was largely out of the engineer's control, rather than due to inattentiveness, carelessness, or other form of negligence.

If you are at the controls then you are responsible-at least, that is the way it is supposed to work. The engineer screwed up-people died.

Eddie,

There is no question about the speed of the train at the time of the accident.   And certainly the engineer is responsible for control of the train.  

But as the article conveys, there is a very large unanswered question as to why it as going that fast.  Just 1 example possibility that comes to mind is - was the engineer knocked out or passed out at the time he should have reducing speed for the bend?

So even though the train was going 2 times the limit, and the engineer is always responsible for a locomotive's operations, there are at this time valid possibilities that were beyond the engineer's control for why he was not able to control the train. 

I really hope the authorities can clearly identify the cause, certainly for the families of those lost or injured but for the sake of the engineer, crew and their families as well.

Regardless of the outcome it will not change anything for all those involved.

Ed

Good article, but it understandably asks more questions than it answers.

You have to wonder about the engineer; what would you do after something like that? Negligent or not, he's not to going to likely be the hogger on any trains again. What's the guy doing for a living right now?

A solid piece of journalism in a day when even "good" journalism is a quickly dying art.

David

I do wonder why they made mentioned of him being gay at all, as if that had anything to do with the accident. Maybe that was a PC-inspired bid for people not demonizing him for the accident?

So lets see,  On the southbound trip the cab signals weren't working so he had to go slower making him arrive late into DC.  That ate up his break time before having to take the northbound back to NY.  Solo.  Not me.  Amtrak has some responsibility here too.