A judge on Thursday reinstated charges against a former Amtrak engineer who was driving a speeding train that derailed in Philadelphia in 2015, killing eight people.
In his ruling, the judge, Victor P. Stabile of Pennsylvania Superior Court, found that a judge who had dismissed the charges last year improperly considered evidence that should be litigated at trial. Judge Stabile sent the case back to a trial court to be heard before a jury.
The ruling marked the latest twist in the state of Pennsylvania’s efforts to prosecute the former engineer, Brandon Bostian, on more than 200 charges, including one count of causing catastrophe and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Mr. Bostian, 37, was driving a Washington-to-New York train on May 12, 2015, when he accelerated to a speed of 106 miles per hour as the train entered a curved section of track with a 50 m.p.h. speed limit. The train careened off the track and into Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood. More than 200 people were injured, in addition to the eight killed.
Investigators said Mr. Bostian had lost “situational awareness,” or knowledge of the train’s location, when he was distracted by radio transmissions from a nearby train that had been hit by a rock.
Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro, issued a statement welcoming the ruling.
“The court agreed with our office and ruled the Attorney General can move forward in our work to deliver justice,” the statement said. “The families who lost loved ones in this fateful crash and the many passengers who were injured deserve closure.”
Mr. Bostian’s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, said he disagreed with the decision, which contradicts “the undisputed truth that criminals were stoning passenger trains just before this accident.”
“We believe that it would have been unconscionable for the judge to refuse to consider this evidence in evaluating whether the Commonwealth met its burden of proof,” he said. “This was an accident and not a crime, and we will appeal.”
In October 2016, Amtrak agreed to pay up to $265 million to victims and their families in one of the largest settlements related to a train derailment in the United States.
But the Philadelphia district attorney declined to charge Mr. Bostian in May 2017, saying he did not believe there was enough evidence to prove Mr. Bostian had consciously disregarded a “substantial and unjustifiable risk.”
Mr. Shapiro charged Mr. Bostian later that month, but only after victims’ families used a state law that forced the authorities to act.
The charges were then dismissed twice.
In the first ruling, in September 2017, Judge Thomas F. Gehret of Philadelphia Municipal Court concluded that Mr. Bostian bore no criminal responsibility for the derailment. The judge said the episode appeared to be an accident.
In the second case, in July 2019, Judge Barbara McDermott of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ruled that the mistakes Mr. Bostian had made did not constitute a crime. “The law recognizes we’re all human,” the judge said, according to The Associated Press.
In Thursday’s decision reinstating the charges, Judge Stabile wrote that Judge McDermott should not have found that Mr. Bostian had been affected by reports of the nearby train being struck by a rock.
And Judge McDermott should not have found that Mr. Bostian was unaware of his speed and location “until well after he reached the point of no return,” Judge Stabile wrote.
The state’s evidence “can contradict each of these findings,” Judge Stabile wrote. “At this stage of the proceedings, the Commonwealth’s evidence must be accepted as true. The weight and credibility of the evidence are not factors at this pretrial stage.”
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Judge Reinstates Charges Against Engineer in Philadelphia Train Wreck That Killed 8 - The New York Times
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