The transcripts of Bostian’s interviews were part of 2,200 pages of documents the NTSB released Monday as part of a docket they have accumulated.
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The NTSB board will later vote to accept both the probable cause of the crash and any safety recommendations.
Bostian said he applied three separate braking maneuvers to slow the train down. Congress has extended to December 2018 the deadline for requiring railroads to install positive train control, but Amtrak met the original December 2015 deadline on the Northeast Corridor tracks it owns. “The next time I’m pulling out of DC or Philly, I might be mindful not to sit next to the window”, he said” The train was stopped at Metropark station in Woodbridge, New Jersey, where it was checked for other damage by Amtrak police.
Amtrak said in a statement Monday it continues to cooperate fully with the NTSB. “And at the same time, I remember being fearful that even if the train didn’t tip over, if it remained somewhat on the track – I was hoping that the train would fall back down onto the track because it lost speed”, Brandon Bostian told federal investigators looking into the derailment that killed eight people and injured 200 others. In response to that feeling, I put the train brake on, made about a 10-pound application of the brake…
Investigators have already released substantial information about the crash of Amtrak Train 188 – including data showing that the train was zooming at 106 miles per hour, twice the speed limit, before taking a curve at Frankford Junction, where trains are supposed to travel at 50 miles per hour, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Minutes before the accident, a dispatcher was talking on the radio to the engineer of the commuter train that was hit by an object and Mr. Bostian was able to hear them.
The NTSB has said had that equipment been installed the accident would not have happened. Then he felt the engine tilting over.
When he realized the train was about to derail, Bostian recalled holding tightly to the controls and thinking, “Well, this is it, I’m going over”, according to the documents.
The FBI was eventually brought in to assist with the derailment investigation and they found evidence that some type of object, such as a rock or a gunshot, did hit the windshield just prior to the derailment. “The train was going significantly fast around the curve”. A grapefruit-sized dent was found in the windshield of Amtrak 188’s locomotive.
But in two separate interviews, Bostian – who suffered a concussion and other injuries during the crash – said he can’t remember what happened immediately before the train sped up.
Bostian provided his cellphone to investigators, who say there’s no indication he was using it while operating the train. The engineer didn’t violate Amtrak’s policy prohibiting distractions from personal electronics, the safety board said.
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Bostian has been “extremely cooperative”, the NTSB official said. Trains in the Northeast Corridor are frequent targets of rock-throwing vandals.
