Amtrak Engineer's Cell Phone Records Under Scrutiny: NTSB

Was the engineer at the helm during the Amtrak crash distracted by his cell phone when the train derailed in Philadelphia?

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board say they are working hard to figure that out.

The NTSB said it will be delving deep into the engineer’s cell phone records to determine if the device was in use at the time of the fatal accident.

Additionally, investigators said they have determined all signals systems were functioning properly when the Amtrak train derailed on May 12, killing eight people and injuring more than 200.

Officials said they have engineer Brandon Bostian’s cell phone as well as his call and text records in their possession but have not determined if he was using it at the time of the accident. NTSB forensic experts will be analyzing the data, officials said.

“Although the records appear to indicate that calls were made, text messages sent, and data used on the day of the accident, investigators have not yet made a determination if there was any phone activity during the time the train was being operated,” the NTSB said in a statement.

The process involved in correlating time stamps for all cell phone activity is “detailed and lengthy,” the NTSB said.

Bostian had been operating trains in the Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor for about three years. He had been specifically assigned the Washington-New York segment of the corridor for several weeks, according to the NTSB.

NTSB investigators announced Wednesday they have completed most of their on-scene work at the accident site. “An examination of the signals systems has revealed no anomalies or malfunctions,” investigators said in Wednesday’s update.

Interviews with passengers and emergency responders will continue over the coming weeks, the NTSB said. “Investigative specialists in crashworthiness and survival factors are interviewing passengers that survived the accident in order to understand the circumstances of the evacuation as well as how injuries correlated with train car and seating positions,” the NTSB statement said.

NTSB announced probable cause of the accident will be determined at the conclusion of its investigation, would could take as long as a year.

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