The engineer who was at the controls when an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday, killing seven people, does not remember what happened when the speeding train slammed into a curve and jumped off the tracks, his attorney said in an interview Wednesday.
“He remembers driving the train, he remembers going to that area generally, has absolutely no recollection of the incident or anything unusual,” attorney Robert Goggin, who said he represents Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian, 32, of Forest Hills, Queens, told ABC’s “Nightline.”
“The next thing he recalls is being thrown around, coming to, finding his bag, getting his cell phone and dialing 911,” Goggin told the news program. Goggin said Bostian was injured in the crash and had 14 staples placed in his head and suffered a knee injury. “What he looked was exhausted,” Goggin told ABC.
Bostian was released from the hospital Wednesday. Philadelphia police said Wednesday night that he had been interviewed and had given a blood sample. Goggin said he also turned over his cell phone.
The train was traveling at 106 mph as it entered a curve where the speed limit is just 50 mph, Robert Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Wednesday. The entire train — a locomotive and seven passenger cars — derailed immediately, he said. There were approximately 243 people on board.
The crash could very likely have been prevented. The Associated Press reports via Minneapolis Star Tribune: Long-sought safety technology might have prevented deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia.
Seven years ago, Congress gave Amtrak and freight and commuter railroads until the end of this year to install the technology, called positive train control, on their trains and tracks. But few, if any, railroads are expected to meet the deadline. Now lawmakers are proposing to give railroads another five to seven years to get the task done.
The technology uses GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor train position. It can automatically brake to prevent derailments due to excessive speed, collisions with other trains, trains entering track where maintenance is being done or going the wrong way because of a switching mistake. It’s all aimed at preventing human error, which is responsible for about 40 percent of train accidents.
A preliminary review of the Amtrak train’s event data recorder, or “black box,” shows it was traveling at 106 mph in an 80 mph zone just before it entered a curve where the speed limit is 50 mph, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said Wednesday. The train’s engineer applied maximum braking power seconds before the crash, but it was too late.
“We feel that had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred,” Sumwalt told reporters….
Not counting Tuesday’s derailment, the NTSB has investigated 29 passenger and freight train accidents that officials say could have been prevented by positive train control since 2004. Sixty-eight people died and more than 1,100 were injured in those crashes. The board has been urging installation of the technology, or its precursors, for 45 years.
You read that right. The technology has been available in some form for 45 years and still hasn’t been installed! Why? You guessed it, I’m sure. It’s incredibly expensive, and Congress doesn’t want to use taxpayer money to help pay for it. In fact, a bill was has been approved by the Senate transportation committee that would give the railroads until 2020 to finish the installation.
At least three of the bill’s key sponsors — Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. — have each received more than $100,000 in contributions to their campaigns and political committees from the rail industry over the course of their careers in Congress, according to the political money-tracking website OpenSecrets.org.
The three senators said in statements or through their aides that reports by government agencies show railroads need more time. One of the hurdles is getting all the railroads to agree on systems that will work on everyone’s tracks despite differing policies and operations. Such interoperability is necessary because freight railroads frequently operate on each other’s tracks. Commuter railroads and Amtrak also often operate on freight rail tracks.
Amtrak has been one of the more aggressive railroads in installing the technology. Three years ago, Amtrak announced it expected to finish installing positive train control throughout its busy Northeast Corridor by the end of 2012. While positive train control is in operation in much of the corridor between New York and Boston and on some other Amtrak lines in the Midwest, other portions still lack the technology.
How did the Republican Congress respond to a terrible train crash that killed at least 7 people and injured 200? The House wants to cut funding for Amtrak.
Politico: House panel votes to cut Amtrak budget hours after deadly crash.
House Republicans voted Wednesday to chop about a fifth of Amtrak’s budget, less than a day after a deadly train crash that Democrats pointed to as a prime example of the dangers of shortchanging the nation’s transportation needs.
They also rebuffed Democrats’ attempts to provide money for an advanced speed-control technology that federal investigators later said would have prevented the crash.
“Based on what we know right now, we feel that had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred,” National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt told reporters Wednesday evening. Sumwalt, who is leading the crash probe, spoke hours after the House Appropriations Committee voted down a Democratic amendment that would have offered $825 million for the technology known as positive train control.
The amendment was part of hours of action on a GOP-backed $55 billion transportation and housing bill that Democrats attacked as an example of badly misplaced priorities. New York Rep. Steve Israel directly tied the crash to Congress’ spending decisions, saying people expect lawmakers to look out for their safety — and “last night, we failed them.”
“It’s not just our trains,” Israel said during a contentious markup Wednesday, which occurred as the wreckage from the seven-fatality derailment in Philadelphia was dominating the news channels. “It is our bridges that are failing. It is our highways that are congested and riddled with potholes. It is our runways, our airports. … We are divesting from America.”
Republicans said the cuts are necessary to stay under the spending caps that President Barack Obama and Congress agreed to four years ago.
Imagine if Republicans didn’t block all efforts to improve the country’s infrastructure? Former PA Gov. Ed Rendell had a few choice words for the House Republicans.
Talking Points Memo: Rendell Blasts GOP ‘SOBs’ Who Didn’t Have ‘Decency’ To Delay Amtrak Vote.
“Here, less than 12 hours after seven people died, these SOBs, and that’s all I can call them, these SOBs didn’t even have the decency to table the vote,” he said.
Hayes, who said he was playing devil’s advocate, pressed Rendell, asking why the accident should influence a vote on the budget.
Rendell said that Republicans’ “policy is terrible.”
“This country used to have the world’s best infrastructure,” he continued.
Rendell then recalled testifying about transportation funding in Congress while he was governor of Pennsylvania.
“Senator Shelby said, ‘Well governor, you’re asking us to subsidize Amtrak.’ I said, ‘Senator, there isn’t a rail system in the world that isn’t subsidized,'” Rendell said. “What are these guys smoking?”
John Cassidy argues at the The New Yorker: After the Amtrak Crash, It’s Time to Get Serious About Transportation Infrastructure.
We don’t know yet what caused Tuesday night’s train derailment in Philadelphia, which killed at least seven people and injured scores more. On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said that the train was travelling at more than a hundred miles an hour, on a sharp turn where the speed limit was just fifty miles an hour. But even if human error was responsible for what happened, the crash also highlights the fact that some stretches of the track that Amtrak uses are unsuitable for high-speed travel, and they are also not equipped with the modern technology necessary to enable automatic override systems, which can slow down speeding trains. (According to Reuters and the Times, the train that derailed did have an automatic safety system installed, but it didn’t work on the track where the derailment took place.)
One thing we do know for sure is that, for decades now, the United States has been allowing its public infrastructure to decay. In 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers issued a report saying that it would take roughly $3.6 trillion worth of repairs and retrofitting merely to return the nation’s roads, railways, and airports to a safe and durable state. For example, about one in nine bridges in the U.S. were structurally deficient, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
And that’s just transportation infrastructure. Many of America’s schools, sewage systems, and parks could do with an upgrade, too. A couple of years ago, a survey by the World Economic Forum ranked the United States twenty-fifth globally in overall quality of infrastructure, behind such nations as Spain, Oman, and South Korea. That’s hardly surprising. In my neighborhood in Brooklyn, where townhouses are now selling for millions of dollars, the sewers, which were built more than a century ago, sometimes back up after a heavy rainstorm.
It’s no mystery why much of our public infrastructure is overloaded and crumbling. America is a growing country, and investment in infrastructure has failed to keep up with expanding needs. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties we spent close to five per cent of G.D.P. on new transport and water projects, and on maintaining existing systems. European nations still spend about that much today, while China and other rapidly developing Asian countries spend close to twice as much. In the United States, however, spending on infrastructure is only about half of what it used to be, relative to G.D.P.
This situation is a direct product of politics. As entitlement spending has grown and pressure to cut the federal budget has increased, infrastructure spending has been tightened. The squeeze was relaxed for a few years as a result of President Obama’s stimulus program, but it’s now back in effect. Take the federal Highway Trust Fund, which historically has paid for about a third of public-transportation projects around the country. It is almost always operating in the red, largely because the gasoline tax that finances the fund hasn’t been raised since 1993. Over the next ten years, it is facing a financial shortfall of about a hundred and seventy billion dollars, according to the Congressional Budget Office, but Republicans in Congress are blocking efforts to raise more revenues.
I’m not sure why Cassidy threw in the part about “entitlement spending.” He’s a Brit. Does he know that Social Security is not part of the Federal budget? If the government spent money on infrastructure, it would create jobs and more people would be paying income taxes as well as paying into Social Security and Medicare. Increasing the cap on Social Security taxes so that wealthier people paid their fair share would help too.
But I digress. He’s right that we should be improving our infrastructure. Other countries manage to build and support fantastic high-speed trains.
We’re all feeling discouraged by what Republicans have done and are trying to do to our country. But we can’t allow them to achieve their destructive goals. Let’s make every effort to elect a Democratic president and Democratic Congress next year. Don’t let the bastards get you down!
So . . . what stories are you following today? Please share your thoughts and links on any topic in the comment thread and enjoy your Thursday.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Thanks for this post, BB. I made a couple of comments on the Amtrak crash in the previous thread but you articulate it so much better than I could. Knowing how this and prior crashes could have been prevented if funding was provided is just maddening!
You are so right about not letting discouragement keep us from fighting the good fight. It’s easy to go into a helpless/hopeless spiral. I’ve been down that rabbit hole lately, feeling very sick and tired in both body and mind. I have a lot of doctor appointments and tests coming up. Nothing to look forward to there. Brain MRI’s are not fun and I have had enough of them already. I absolutely hate them and dread the results. My garden is the only thing that seems to be going well in my life right now.
I want to thank you, Sky Dancers, for being here. Together, we can make positive changes happen! That I believe.
Beata, thank you for your words too! No point in dwelling in despondency.
Yeah, we have to look at reality. But reality also includes the amazing chartreuse green of abundant spring growth, the marvelous formation of flowers and leaves, birds singing and nesting, even the clever engineering of those damnable moles pushing up their hummocks of earth in my garden.
We need to take solace from what’s going right, no matter how small. Not let heartless people have the power to get inside our heads and hearts to spoil even more of the world than they already do.
And when we focus our attention on them, it is to mock and outwit them. Republicans whining about the “expensiveness” of technology to prevent train crashes? WTF? What about the expensiveness of unjustifiable wars? If you ignore infrastructure, it’s just going to be far more costly down the road to fix things. Plus, investing in infrastructure = jobs here in the US. What’s not to like about that?
Amen to all that! Hang in there Beata!
It is easy to get discouraged by the Republicans’ stupidity and actual cruelty at times.
Hugs, Beata. I look for your thoughtful and informative comments. Thank you for all of your contributions. I hope everything goes as well as your garden.
Beata,
It was your comments in JJ’s thread that prompted me to read about the Amtrak crash. I hadn’t been following it that closely.
I’ve been rattled by the republicans war on women, and just yesterday it hit a all time high. I mean this are the people who allow babies to go to bed hungry, every damn single night.
Now the war has started as the House took up abortion band that will likely challenge Roe Vs. Wade. And nothing seems to stop them, NOTHING. The men don’t carry babies, they don’t want you to breastfeed, they don’t want to help women with education, work, child care, sick leave, and other issues, like violence and abuse in our society, and like rape. No, they want the ten year old girl to have the rapist baby, and marry him. Ugh, I am sick to my stomach of them treating women less than human, more like sex machines, and babies makers. The courts just said that the NSA is illegal, and that they can’t violate the privacy rights of our citizens. Why the hell is the republican party getting away with violating a women’s privacy rights, concerning her reproductive care and her consulting doctor. Why do they have a right to gather up illegal information from hospitals, via the telephone, and insurance companies, and businesses (hobby) banks to turn that information into false facts, misinterpreting and causing harm to girls and women. I listen to the men, they shout out loud about NSA and other organizations violating their privacy, why aren’t we stopping this war. It won’t stop, no, it is not going away. I’m tired a complaining and signing petitions. Either we stand up, and just let them think we are less than they are, when it comes of our so called protected rights, or we kick ass.
Rendell was right, the SOB republicans are destroying what took us years to achieve. BB, you’re the best, and like Beata said, we have some outstanding skydancers, who are most important in our lives.
Fannie, it’s so depressing to see us moving backward. The war against women. The war against the poor ( who are mostly women and children ). It’s appalling what is happening.
I watched with great hope the protests in Wisconsin and the Occupy Movement. Finally, people were coming together to fight for change. But what did they achieve? The Koch Brothers’ puppet Scott Walker is still governor of Wisconsin ( and a possible presidential candidate ) and Wall Street is still doing whatever they damn please.
I think it’s ultimately Citizens United vs. The American People. Who will win that fight? I just wish I were younger and healthier so I could do more. I’m tired, so f**king tired of it all.
The Koch brothers et al. want us to be too tired to fight back!
Nailed that one, BB!
We need to fight back — if only to annoy them 🙂
Let’s get them really annoyed!
81-year-old disabled veteran calls 911 because he has no food and no one to help him:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/14/this-81-year-old-army-veteran-called-911-because-he-was-hungry/
I just got off the phone with Mr. Blackmon, he’s a US Army, Korean Veteran. He now has more food than he knows what to do with. Most donations are now being sent to the local food bank. My husband, Bill (also a veteran) talked with him, and was saddened to hear that he was abandoned, living the way veterans and poor elderly folks do today, and suffering from loneliness, disabled and locked in their homes. He has cancer. After our phone call, I called the Dept. Veterans Affairs in Fayetteville, they said they could connect me with a county number. That pissed me off, I see why veterans feel abandoned.
I was able to reach a group who deal with low income and homeless veterans, and they are limited in their services, but they are sending out a friend to check on Mr. Blackmon.
Beata we know you were locked in this winter, and I am so glad that you are out in the sun, and doing a garden. It really is good therapy. Just wish we lived close to you, we’d go over and dance in your garden. Thank you for caring, and sharing Clarence’s story, I think I have a new friend, and will call him from time to time!
Thank you so much for helping Mr. Blackmon, Fannie. You are a treasure. I was very worried about what would happen to him after the donations of food stopped but I didn’t know what to do. He obviously needs on-going loving care and support. I pray that he will receive that.
Fannie, the Mid-Carolina Area Agency on Aging has a variety of services that should be able to help Mr. Blackmon. Here is their website:
http://www.mccog.org/aging_services.asp
Anytime Beata – lately we’ve really been dealing with poverty and children, and veterans here, and I’ve been reading the articles, and it’s been sinking in more and more. I can’t help but think of babies and children going to bed hungry, and disabled people, and veterans. It’s not the America I knew, it’s not the dream I had, it’s almost unreal, and like you said it is makes you tired of the same old, same old.
Fannie,
You are an angel.
ABC News:
Donations Pouring in for Elderly Man Who Called 911 for Food
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/donations-pouring-elderly-man-called-911-food/story?id=31050102
That 911 operator is a hero as well. We see so many stories of callous, unconcerned 911 operators. How wonderful that Mr. Blackmon reached this one.
Interesting, an awful lot rides on the SEC, where the DOJ has no control.
NYT: 5 Big Banks Expected to Plead Guilty to Felony Charges, but Punishments May Be Tempered
Russ Feingold is launching his bid for office, he being the only one who voted against Patriot Act.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/former-wisconsin-senator-russ-feingold-launches-bid-to-regain-seat/
Before announcing, he had a 16 pt lead over Johnson in a Marquette poll. 🙂
Commentary: Hillary Clinton is probably the best qualified presidential candidate ever
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-hillary-clinton-senator-secretary-of-state-qualifications-20150512-story.html