Vol. 81/No. 36 October 2, 2017
Charges tossed in frame-up of engineer in Phila. crash
Eight people died and more than 200 were injured when the train derailed on the curve at Frankford Junction. The train, en route from Washington, D.C., to New York, had been traveling at over twice the 50 mph speed limit there. Bostian has been on administrative leave without pay since the accident.
Rail bosses, the press and capitalist politicians like then Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter tried to frame Bostian, the train’s engineer, for the deaths and destruction. But it was Amtrak bosses’ push to cut costs that led to the disaster.
After a four-hour hearing, Judge Gehret said he found no evidence the engineer engaged in criminal activity. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office has not said whether it will appeal.
In a May 2016 report on the disaster, the National Transportation Safety Board said Bostian was likely distracted by reports coming over the train’s radio about a nearby SEPTA commuter train that had been hit by projectiles. The engineer has sued Amtrak, saying he was knocked unconscious when similar projectiles hit his train. He suffered a concussion and a head gash and does not remember the derailment.
As the statute of limitations was running out in May 2017, the Philadelphia attorney general refused to press charges, saying there was no evidence that Bostian acted with criminal intent. Family members of one of the passengers who died convinced state authorities to file criminal charges.
The Amtrak crash and other accidents before and since, like the deadly derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, in 2013, have underscored the demand by rail workers and their unions — as well as many other working people — for two rail workers on every locomotive.
One week after the Amtrak derailment, Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and John Previsich, president of the SMART Transportation Division, issued a joint statement pointing squarely to what caused the deadly derailment — decisions by both Congress and Amtrak bosses that mandated a single crew member on the railroad’s engines. “Safe transportation service demands a crew of at least two fully trained and qualified employees in the control cab of every train,” they said.
When Amtrak was created in the 1970s, locomotive cabs were required to have at least a two-member crew. But in the name of cutting costs and boosting profits, both Congress and the railroad’s bosses changed the rules to run their trains with just one engineer.
Under public pressure, Amtrak installed a Positive Train Control system, which uses sensors and computer systems to monitor train speed and slow or stop trains if they exceed speed limits on much of its highly traveled Northeast Corridor. But it hadn’t been installed on the Frankford Junction northbound tracks where Train 188 derailed.
Congress responded to the continuing series of train disasters by mandating Positive Train Control be installed on all rail systems nationwide by the end of 2015. When the rail bosses dragged their feet, the deadline was extended for another three years. As of the end of 2016, rail management had put the system on only 24 percent of their tracks in passenger service and 16 percent in freight.
The bottom line is that “no technology can replace the level of safety provided when two crew members are on board and can serve as a check and balance to one another,” said the statement by the two rail union officers after the Amtrak crash.
In January 2016 the Federal Railroad Administration finally proposed that trains have two crew members, but said railroads could apply for exemptions. And there is still no set date to implement this.
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
1000s march to back workers in 6-month-long Spectrum strike
Communist League: Stop frame-up against Harding, Labrie!
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