PHILADELPHIA — The lengthy legal saga of the engineer in a fatal 2015 Amtrak accident will finally go before a jury asked to determine if the events of that day constitute a crime.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports a trial is slated to begin today (Tuesday, Feb. 22) in which Brandon Bostian, 38, is charged with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter, hundreds of counts of reckless endangerment, and causing a catastrophe as a result of the wreck of Northeast Regional train No. 188 on May 12, 2015. An NTSB report determined the train derailed after entering a 50-mph curve at 106 mph, likely because Bostian suffered “a loss of situational awareness.”
Since then, charges against Bostian have been dismissed and reinstated twice — first in 2017, then dismissed in 2019 before being reinstated by a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge who said the judge who issued the second dismissal improperly considered evidence that should be litigated at trial [see “Digest: Charges reinstated against Amtrak 188 engineer,” Trains News Wire, May 18, 2020].
The jury trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott is expected to last up to two weeks.
Given the circumstances and the amount of time that this has taken, I’m disappointed that Mr.Bostian’s union hasn’t offered support. They should make the polite offer, “Drop the charges and the trains keep running. Otherwise, they stop. And, stay that way until they are…”
They need to leave this poor man alone. He fell asleep, period. With railroad work schedules, it happens. But it doesn’t have to be an “acceptable risk”. Brandon has paid the price of grief, I’m sure. Wanna argue with me? I have 39 years experience behind the throttle in extraboard freight service.
The carriers know well what their work schedules do to the human body, but won’t change because “it costs too much”, hence the “acceptable risk”.
Somebody with a lot of clout must be pushing this to get another judge to intervene. It would be interesting to know who’s behind this.
Those who oppose the reinstatement of the trial must either be devine to forgive Mr Bostian or they had no love ones injured and killed in the wreck of Train Number 188.
7 years some “speedy” trial.
Keep in mind that this case is being tried in a PA court. PA law does have vehicular manslaughter which includes a driver who travels at a high speed over the posted speed limit and kills someone. So the case could come down to what’s the difference between that and his negligence. [Vehicular manslaughter has a maximum 5 years sentence in PA.]
Vehicular manslaughter in PA goes under the title of “Homicide by Vehicle” and does carry a 5 year max sentence but in PA trains do not fall under that statute, as PA Title 75 (governing all vehicular violations/regulations) specifically excludes trains from the definition of “vehicle”.
I’ve read the NTSB accident report and in my opinion don’t believe criminal charges against the engineer are warranted. He definitely made a horrible mistake which caused much pain and suffering. He’s lost his career, and I suspect lives with memories and guilt of that horrible night. But based on the investigation it doesn’t seem to me he was criminally negligent.
Well said.
Hasn’t Mr Bostian already suffered an open ended sentence over these seven years of back and forth?
The preceding judge can dismiss with prejudice, which means that the plaintiff cannot refile the same claim again in that court. Otherwise, the judge can dismiss without prejudice–meaning the prosecutor can refile the same or additional complaints on the defendant. [I am not a lawyer]
The U.S. Constiitution continues to be a joke. If a charge is dismissed it shouldn’t be able to be reinstated.
The deciding point is when and how the charges are dismissed. In Bostian’s case in both instances the charges were dismissed before a trial had begun. If they had been dismissed during a trial, he could not have been retried. Disclaimer: I have no opinion on his guilt or innocence.