Federal safety investigators said Wednesday records indicate the
engineer involved in last month's fatal Amtrak derailment in
Philadelphia wasn't using his cellphone while operating the
train.
The National Transportation Safety Board said an analysis of the
records showed engineer Brandon Bostian didn't make calls, text or
use the train's wi-fi system before the train sped into a sharp
curve at more than double the speed limit and jumped the
tracks.
The May 12 wreck killed eight people and injured more than
200.
It remains unclear why the New York-bound train was traveling at
106 miles an hour into a tight curve—where the posted speed limit
is 50 mph—when it derailed. Mr. Bostian has told investigators he
doesn't remember what occurred before or during the accident.
A lawyer for Mr. Bostian couldn't immediately be reached for
comment. He has said the engineer's phone was stowed away while Mr.
Bostian operated the train. Mr. Bostian gave investigators the
passcode to his cellphone so they could access records without
going to the manufacturer, the NTSB said.
Investigators haven't found any mechanical problems with the
train or tracks.
The NTSB said the cellphone analysis has been more complicated
than anticipated because the phone carrier has multiple systems
that log different types of phone activity, some of which are in
different time zones. The agency said it had to validate time
stamps in several sets of records to correlate them with the time
zone where the accident occurred.
Investigators at the agency's lab in Washington have been
examining the phone's operating system to determine if the phone
was in "airplane mode" or turned off. The agency said it is
obtaining a phone identical to Mr. Bostian's to run tests as part
of the probe.
Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com
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