Shifting the blame from an unfit homosexual, "Train in deadly 2015 Amtrak had safety equipment that could have prevented it"

[Gays Are Not Responsible People]

The horrific Amtrak wreck that killed eight people and injured
159 in Philadelphia last year could have been prevented if
hardware installed on the train had been switched on, according
to investigators.

The engineer also might have been distracted by radio traffic
about rock throwing involving a SEPTA commuter train, although
he told investigators last year that he was not overly worried
by the incident.

Those factors are among those expected to be discussed when the
National Transportation Safety Board meets Tuesday to announce
the results of its year-long investigation into the Amtrak wreck.

Seven months after the passenger rail line suffered its worst
wreck in 22 years, Amtrak flipped the switch to activate the
system that could have slowed the speeding train, complying with
a then federal deadline that mandated installation of Positive
Train Control (PTC) by the year’s end.

If PTC had been activated before engineer Brandon Bostian
allowed the train to hurtle into a sharp bend in the tracks at
more than twice the posted speed limit, the system automatically
would have slowed its speed.

NTSB investigators have determined that Bostian was sober, drug
free and not on his cell phone when he let the train speed into
the fatal turn. But he told investigators that a radio report of
rocks being thrown at a commuter train concerned him.

“I wasn’t, you know, super concerned, I don’t think,” Bostian
told investigators a year ago in the first of two long
interviews with them.

The report of rocks or, perhaps, bullets being fired a commuter
rail train operating on adjacent tracks was the first indication
the Bostian might have been distracted. He heard radio
conversation between the operator of the SEPTA train and his
dispatcher, and then contacted the operator himself.

“There’s been so many times that I’ve had reports of rocks that
I haven’t seen anything, that I felt it was unlikely that it
would impact me,” Bostian, 32, told investigators on May 15,
2015. “And I was really concerned for the SEPTA engineers.

Asked if he was fearful himself, he said “Slightly.”

“But I figured there’s a good chance that they left,” Bostian
said. “Whoever was throwing the rocks had probably left.”

With all of the train’s systems apparently functioning normally,
Bostian’s actions became a key focus of the investigation. He
told investigators he had a “very foggy memory” of what went on
as he passed through North Philadelphia piloting a train that
originated in Washington’s Union Station and was bound for New
York City.

“The memory from there is very vague,” Bostian told
investigators in November, six months after the crash. “The only
word, and I hesitate to use the word ‘dreamlike’ because it
sounds like I was asleep, and I don’t believe that I was asleep
at all.”

At that moment — seconds before the engine and several of the
seven cars it was pulling left the tracks — the train was going
106 miles per hour, more than twice the 50 mph limit for the
sharp curve to the left, the train’s event recorder indicated.

[Engineer in Philadelphia Amtrak derailment recalls ‘foggy’
memory]

“The memory doesn’t include much visual memory. I don’t remember
hearing much. It was more of a feeling,” he said. “I remember
feeling my body lurch to the right, towards the right side of
the engine. I remember feeling as though I was going too fast
around a curve. In response to that feeling, I put the train
brake on.”

The wreck of Amtrak train 188 left rail cars strewn like toppled
bowling pins beside the Frankford Junction tracks. One ripped
open in a contortion of aluminum that left little looking like a
rail car. Others, whipped off the tracks at 103 miles per hour,
landed on their sides. Passengers hit the ceiling, flew out of
broken windows, landed atop one another, were struck by flying
luggage or were crushed in the twisted wreckage.

In addition to the eight dead, 46 people were seriously injured
and 113 others suffered lesser injuries.

Outside safety experts and engineers have been mystified, caught
between the real questions they say Bostian’s actions raise and
their own reluctance to condemn him in the absence of clear
information.

Bill Keppen, a rail safety expert who was himself an engineer on
freight line Burlington Northern for 13 years, said the radio
chatter in Philadelphia about a commuter train being struck by
an object would not have been particularly unusual or all-
consuming for an engineer.

“It would not be uncommon for trains or engineers to communicate
about troubles along the railway. I don’t think that would
really affect the guy’s concentration,” Keppen said. “I can’t
see inside that guy’s brain. That’s his brain. I would be alert,
but I wouldn’t be afraid.”

Given the strength of the glass in cabs, it’s unlikely an object
could do more than crack the glass, and would likely not lead to
an injury, Keppen said. Bostian told investigators he was
thinking about an associate who was indeed hurt by getting
shattered glass in his eye in such an incident.

“I hesitate to criticize the guy. He’s going to live with that
for the rest of his life,” Keppen said.

The blurry nature of Bostian’s recollections have made drawing
lessons, a primary goal of such NTSB exercises, difficult. But
one thing is clear, he said.

“It points to the importance of having technology like positive
train control fully operational,” Keppen said.

PTC has been called “arguably the single-most important rail
safety development in more than a century” by federal regulators.

Federal Railroad Administration head Sarah Feinberg threatened
to fine passenger and freight railroads last year when a year-
end deadline for its installation approached. But the railroads
contended they had too little time to install the complicated
system, and Congress listened to their plea and extended the
deadline until 2018.

[Feds tell railroads they must meet deadlines for live-saving
technology]

Congress, whose members have received more than $24 million in
campaign contributions from the powerful railroad industry since
2008, also said railroads could ask for up to two additional
years after the 2018 deadline to complete the job.

Feinberg made clear that she expects regular progress reports
from railroads, some of which have systems nearly complete,
while many others are well behind.

Fearful that some railroads may think the wiggle room granted by
Congress gives then until 2020 to finish installation, Feinberg
has warned that unless railroads meet FRA benchmarks, no
extensions will be granted beyond 2018.

Though Amtrak owns most of the rail on which its trains run in
the Northeast Corridor, the balance of it’s operations are on
track owned by freight rail roads. To complete the PTC system,
those freight railroads must install a system of way points with
which equipment on board the train maintains contact.

Aware of FRA criticism, the Association of American Railroads, a
trade group for the freight lines, said Monday that it’s members
have invested $6.5 billion dollars on PTC. They said the cost
will climb to $10.6 billion to cover the 60,000 route miles of
freight rail track.

“Freight railroads continue to aggressively move forward with
testing and installation of PTC on their individual networks,”
said AAR spokesman Ed Greenberg. “The freight rail industry
remains on schedule at having PTC fully implemented across the
country as quickly as possible and in accordance with the
extension passed by Congress.”

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in-deadly-2015-amtrak-had-safety-equipment-that-could-have-
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