Updated May 20, 2015
Federal safety investigators said Wednesday they are
examining cellphone records, a locomotive event recorder, surveillance video
and other data to determine whether the engineer involved in a fatal Amtrak
derailment earlier this month in Philadelphia was using his phone while
operating the train.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had
obtained engineer Brandon Bostian’s cellphone records through a subpoena and
determined he had made calls and texted with his phone the day of the May 12
crash that left eight dead and more than 200 injured.
It wasn’t yet clear, however, if Mr. Bostian was using his
phone while he was at the controls of Northeast Regional Train 188 —traveling
at more than twice the posted 50-mile-an-hour speed limit—when it derailed at a
tight curve, the agency said. The train was heading north to New York from
Washington, carrying 243 passengers and crew.
The NTSB didn’t say when it would announce further results
of its inquiry.
Mr. Bostian’s attorney, Robert Goggin, didn’t respond to
requests for comment Wednesday.
Mr. Goggin has said Mr. Bostian’s cellphone was stowed away
while the 32-year-old was operating the train that day and he hadn’t taken
drugs or alcohol.
Mr. Bostian, whose lawyer said he suffered head injuries in
the wreck, has told investigators he doesn’t remember the events immediately
before the derailment or the accident, which occurred at about 9:30 p.m.
NTSB member Robert Sumwalt has said that according to data
downloaded from the train’s “black box” event recorder, the train was traveling
106 miles an hour in a 50 m.p.h. zone when Mr. Bostian, applied an emergency
brake. The locomotive and seven passenger cars slowed to 102 m.p.h. before
jumping the tracks, the data showed.
The agency hasn’t offered an explanation as to why the train
was traveling so fast at the time.
Mr. Sumwalt previously said the agency was investigating the
possibility that a projectile had struck the train, but the NTSB said later
that tapes of communications show Mr. Bostian didn’t tell dispatchers that any
object hit the train.
On Wednesday, the NTSB said that its examination of signal
systems found no malfunctions or anomalies.
The agency also said the engineer of a Southeastern
Pennsylvania Transportation Authority commuter train who was interviewed by
investigators said he saw the Amtrak train pass before the derailment and
didn’t notice anything unusual.
Mr. Bostian started as an Amtrak conductor in 2006 and
became an engineer in 2010, according to a profile on LinkedIn.
Records provided by Amtrak show that he had been operating
trains in the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston for about three
years. He had been assigned to the Washington to New York route for several
weeks before the accident, the agency said.