But for a curve in a right of way created in the 1850’s and never redesigned and a right of way accessible to vandals throwing rocks at trains; the 2015 accident would not have happened. The PRR/Penn Central/AMtrak ownerships never invested in correcting the curve in Frankford section of Philadelphia. A right of way without security fencing and setbacks remains accessible. The inherent dessign defects were first and foremost the cause of the 2015 accident. Historic and continuing lack of investment.
Engineers are supposed to have situational awareness (know your route). Bostian did not on that fatal day. Smokey Joe might have a useful observation on this.
Who is “smokey joe?” What relevance does that have? Please explain.
Charlie you had multiple reports of trains getting rocked in the area he was in plus the cab signals where not working for the area he was in. Then throw in at night in a poorly lit area. Heck I can loose where I am on the road in bad weather or lighting myself. Let alone in a chaotic enviroment like he found himself that night. Yes he screwed up and people died but a Jury of 12 decided he was NOT responsible for what happened it was an accident that happened. The man has to live with the fact that 8 people died due to what happened that night by his actions. Have you ever been in a fatal accident and know the pain that causes to your own self. My husband was 26 years ago this year and he still can not forget the day that happen over a quarter of a century later. Mistakes happen drop it please for his sake. Let the man live in peace for the last 5 years alone he has been a legal limbo never knowing what his fate was. Now he knows he is free of possiblily being sent to prison for what happened.
Engineer found NOT GUILTY in trial today.
Jury deliberations were said to have taken just a little over ONE HOUR. Really demonstrated how poor a case was presented when compared to the crimes charged.
The only way to get the kind of security you think the NEC needs is to have manned armed guard towers every 300 yards on both sides of the right of way.
Reengineering a existing right of way to eliminate a feature such as the one that caused the incident, in a metropolitan area is rediculously expensive - far too expensive for Amtrak to undertake it on their peanuts of funding.
I believe Charlie means retired engineer and Amtrak critic who posts by the name 243129.
Accidents “will happen” 32 +YEAR AGO, on a very cold and snowy mornong, an elderly couple [pulled out of a gas station; heading to go south and home…The gas station attendant, who witnessed the accident, told me, ‘back story’ about how every monday momning when they would gas up, the old gentleman would pull out of the station; turning left across the highway; while never looking for traffic on the divided 4 lane road…they never saw the tractor-trailer truck. in traffic and straddling the middle median and pushing up the [piled up snow}…It was to be their last ride home to Bowling Green. The husband was the first to decease, and a week later his wife followed. The details of that snowy morning near lexington, still haunt my memory…
Mr. Bastian has my deepest sympathies…He may have been found to not be guilty; But that day’s details will haunt him the rest of his life.
Why did the judge prevent the fact that Amtrak did not have a permanent approach 60 with cab ATC before the curve going north bound but did have southbound? Didn’t PRR turn one over there same conditions during WW=2? If a GG-1 accelerating could turn one over certainly a lighter train behind an ACS-64 would.
The basic fact in any criminal trial is the burden of proof is on the state, that is, the prosecution has to prove to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant is guilty. the defense doesn’t have to prove he or she is not, although if the defense can do so then it’s so much the better. At any rate the burden of proof is on the prosecution, not the defense.
Pure and simple here, the prosecution didn’t make its case.
If we recall - in the time frame of the incident, the local prosecutors declined to bring charges or prosecute account a lack of incriminating EVIDENCE they could bring to bear against Bostain. Relatives of those killed and those injured wanted ‘a pound of flesh’ for their anguish and personal injuries and politically forced charges be brought and a trial be conducted.
The jury’s actions provided ‘conclusive proof’ that the first action in not bringing charges was the correct course.
Not everything that happens in the human experience is criminal and can be prosecuted through the courts.
I think we’ve all been there - You drive the same route day after day (in your personal vehicle) and religiously observe a given reduced speed zone - maybe a school zone. Then one day, you’ve had a little tiff with the better half, or something at work is bugging you, or whatever, and you blow right through at speed.
If you’re lucky, you didn’t get lit up by a cop, but odds are you’ll remember in the future.
I totally agree. He was distracted by the radio calls from the other trains that were under attack and thinking he was past the curve and the best thing to do was get out of the area so return to the higher track speed he thought was appropriate for where he thought he was. He still has to live with what happened. I doubt any of us want to be in his shoes.
When traversing the same route time after time after time - we all register visual cues to assess where we are - at night, then number of cues available (within eyesight of the headlight) is severely compromised versus daylight. We have no way of knowing what landmarks his brain was using as cues for him t
Agree. Been there. Not just driving. Even regarding a light rail stop whern the lighting was changed.
Balt:
Fortunately, (1) there was no GIS/GPS issue here; (2) the train did not get further into the interlocking plant and the havoc that would have caused.[The curve geometry actually protected the lower speed interlocking like a derail would have) and (3) the GIS programming of of personal or commercial “GPS” systems is still a crap-shoot in the credibility department…
How may times did you have to shut down and block a section of main track because of some i-Zombie in a car with a GPS navigation system turned on to a track and got stuck because the system said “turn here” and the i-Zombie blindly obeyed???
I fervently hope the guy’s railroad career is over and he goes somewhere else other than with transportation industries to be an unpredictable threat. Apologists trying to push off personal responsibility on historical geometry are not living in the real world. (The fact that PRR in its heyday could not economically justify a line change speaks volumes. It probably was not on AMTRAK’s long range wish list either - they have more pressing issues with decaying infrastructure and no budget to accomplish all that work. They are doing the best they can within the realistic funding they have with a money-losing system that will never pay its own way, much less make drastic improvements.)
Was he the only person in the cab? Is this a scenario where having a two man crew would have affected the outcome?
The reality is that WE ALL ARE UNPREDICTABLE THREATS. That is the human condition - we ALL are subject to making mistakes given the right set of circumstance. The facts are that we all have made mistakes - we just haven’t had those mistakes end up in serious accident resulting in high value property damage and possibly death. The saying ‘to err is human’ has been true ever since humans began to inhabit the Earth.