Cleared in Philly Wreck

Gee, the poor guy had to wait seven years for the legal system to run its course.

$265 million in settlements is a lot more money than paying for a second person in the cab every day.  I doubt the bean counters agree with me though.

-Nathan

Not that I matters but wasn't the train headed to New York from DC ? - It just made a stop at 30th street station I thought - I could be wrong

it

@dorfj2 posted:

Not that I matters but wasn't the train headed to New York from DC ? - It just made a stop at 30th street station I thought - I could be wrong

You are correct. 

@neuefruhling posted:

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$265 million in settlements is a lot more money than paying for a second person in the cab every day.  I doubt the bean counters agree with me though.

-Nathan

You're not really expecting common sense out of Amtrak, are you?  These are the same people who awhile ago decided not to publish their schedules (make you call in and speak to someone).  Sorry, that's just .

George

These last 2 posts violate the Forums request against political messages. JohnA

@Walter Anderson posted:

Brandon, an appropriate name for someone with no brain!

Walter,

Talk about going off the rails.

It's interesting how true colors come through.  You may think you're being witty, but in light of the seriousness of this outcome after the wreck, no one is looking for "witty" right now.

You're being malicious, mean, and not to mention extremely impolite.  Brandon's everywhere do not deserve this hate.

Take the time the read the story behind the Brandon who got tagged with this stupid line.  You'll realize that he personally had nothing to do with the situation he was put in, other than just being present.  Brandon's everywhere obviously don't deserve the tie-in either, including Brandon Bostian, who has been cleared in an official inquiry.

Please take your baloney somewhere else.  I doesn't belong here. Go hate on someone else.  Go to a political site and spew all you want.

Can we get back to the hobby please?

Mike

Agree with Mike- I am here for the trains, nothing else. JohnA

@Walter Anderson posted:

Lost "situational awareness"????

How about not paying attention to your serious responsibility.

You have nailed that part of it.  At the speed the train was running, it was foolish to listen to other trains' radio communications which did not apply to his own train.  That said, we have all done foolish things from time to time, although normally not when running a passenger train at night at a speed of 100 MPH.  He will not go to prison, as the court appears to have taken a bit of lenience for his attention being drawn to the other trains' reports, and we do not know how well he was prosecuted and defended.  The verdict says that the defense convinced the jury that there was no malice, and that there was at least a sliver of reasonableness to his interest in other trains being "rocked."

Personally, I have little sympathy for him.  After all, he baked his own cake, so to speak.  However I do not wish any harm to befall him. Of course, there will be consequences, but harm is a different matter.  He will account for his actions, even though it may not be in a way that some would have liked.

His life is ruined because of this, and he has to live with the result.  I would mention this: Do not be surprised if a Labor Board reinstates Mr. Bostian.  If that should happen, do not become agitated, do not be hateful.  His fellow employees will take care of that.  He will be a pariah until his last day with Amtrak.

Sounds like a common situation that created a tragedy. Situational awareness can be taken away by any number of things, fatigue, light conditions or just plain boredom, or being distracted by something they shouldn't be looking at (like the plane that went down in the everglades because the entire flight crew was looking at the indicator light for the landing gear not being down, and didn't notice the plane was losing altitude rapidly)

Sad all around, I am sure he isn't exactly laughing off what happened, people being injured and whatnot, it was a tragic accident with a lot of bad consequences. Not going to comment on the jury verdict, you don't know what went on in that trial, what their reasoning was, what was presented, how it was presented, what the judge told them. Doesn't mean people have to agree with it, not sure how I feel, other than sadness that this happened.

As far as shortsightedness of Amtrak or any other company, well, that shouldn't be a big shock. something like 50% of companies in this country have little or no contingency planning in case some sort of unexpected situation happens, a lot of companies information security and the like is way inadequate, and a lot of that is because they think it isn't worth the cost.

This could have gone in the other direction.  The police officer who fired her gun when she thought it was a taser was convicted.  That precedent could well have been applied in this case.  While not the same set of circumstances an error did result in death.  I think the jury in this instance made the correct call.

I think possibly the OP intended for this post to go off the tracks, given that he simply could have titled the thread "Engineer Cleared in Philly Wreck" 

What was the reasoning for the use of the first name?