Authorities To Reveal Probable Cause Of Fatal Amtrak Derailment

On the one-year anniversary of the fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia, the National Transportation Safety Board has announced that next week it will determine the probable cause of the crash that killed eight passengers as the train traveled from Washington, D.C., on its way to New York.

Board members will meet Tuesday (May 17), the NTSB said, beginning at 9:30 a.m. in Washington, D.C. The public can view the meeting live during a webcast, which will be available at the following link that morning.

The official cause should quell a year of public speculation and scrutiny over the crash, which happened shortly before 9:30 p.m. on May 12, 2015, in the Frankford Junction section of the city. In addition to the eight deaths, 200 people were injured when the train sped off the tracks and crashed on its side.

Investigators from the NTSB say the train headed from Washington, D.C. to New York was traveling 106 mph when it went into the Port Richmond turn, which has a 50 mph speed limit.

The engineer, Brandon Bostian, has said in interviews with investigators that he doesn’t remember the immediate moments leading up to the crash.

In February, the NTSB released more than 2,000 pages of information related to the crash investigation.

Included in that release were more than 75 pages of interview transcripts with the conductor, who during the first interview with investigators recalled very little about the moments leading up to the crash.

However, in an interview six months later, Bostian recalled additional “dream-like” details of the crash but could not positively say if his recollections were in fact accurate.

The interview transcripts paint a murky picture of the moments leading up to the crash.

“There’s several gaps in my memory as I approached the accident curve. And I couldn’t say with certainty that my memory is accurate,” Bostian told investigators on Nov. 10.

Bostian, who had been employed by Amtrak for six years, said he doesn’t remember sounds. His recollection of the events is “more of a feeling.” He recalled three manipulations of the train’s brake controls in the moments leading up to the crash.

He says he does not believe he fell asleep before the crash. Bostian was familiar with the route, he told investigators. And it is unknown if he suffered a medical emergency.

Other people who were interviewed during the investigation report that Bostian radioed to report the train was being targeted by what he believed was rocks or gunfire. The train derailed moments after that radio communication.

Bostian was not using his cell phone in the moments leading up to the derailment, the NTSB has said. Officials there have analyzed his cell phone calls, texts and data usage from tower records and information from the train’s WiFi system.

The crash caused more than $9 million in damage, officials estimate.

PHOTOS: NTSB