A jury Friday acquitted an Amtrak engineer of all charges that killed eight people and injured hundreds in Philadelphia in 2015, concluding that a train exceeded twice the speed limit on a curve. The conduct was not criminal negligence. ,
It took just one hour for the jury to acquit 38-year-old Brandon Bastian of mayhem, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment - one count for each injury and death. Amtrak previously settled civil litigation over the accident for $265 million.
Before derailing in North Philadelphia, the train rounded a curve at about 106 mph, more than double the 50 mph speed limit.
Bossian's lawyer described him as a lifelong train buff who had a perfect work record, until he was distracted by reports of people throwing rocks in the area just before the accident. Given the high number of cases against him, if convicted, he could have been jailed for years or even for life.
"It's been seven years for him wondering if he'll ever get his life back. Today the jury gave him his life back," said defense attorney Brian McMonagle after the verdict. "We've been saying from the beginning that Brandon No crime was ever committed here by
In the closing argument, McMonagle said that the criminal actors in the case were the ones who threw stones at the train ahead. No one was ever caught.
Federal safety investigators concluded that Bossian lost "situational awareness" on the track, thinking he was past an S-curve and when he accelerated from about 65 mph to 106 mph. Actually, he was in the middle of the S-curve. Investigators found no evidence that he was impaired, fatigued or using his cellphone at the time.
The key question for the jury was whether Bastian -- who no longer works for Amtrak -- deliberately went fast knowing the risks.
The case has a long legal history, with judges debating whether Bossian's actions constituted a crime. Common Pleas Judge Barbara McDermott, who presided over the seven-day trial, questioned whether the evidence was sufficient, but said she would consider the issue after the jury decided. Things seem incomplete now.
Prosecutors say Bossian was negligent to protect his passengers, who were traveling from Washington to New York that Tuesday evening. The train had stopped at Philadelphia's 30th Street station about 10 minutes earlier and was heading north.
A trial witness, former New York firefighter Charles Gildersleeve, told jurors how he spent two days searching hospitals for his brother after the accident, only to learn that he had died. Robert Gildersleeve was on his way to New York for a work conference that evening after attending his son's lacrosse practice.
Another witness, Blair Berman, described running into Bosian among the rubble and asking to borrow his phone. He didn't tell her that he was driving the train. She asked him where they were, and Bossian told him, well, they were in an area called Franklin Junction.
Prosecutors used this point to argue that Bossian knew when he crashed and should have known the speed limit.
Attorney Tom Kline, who represents both witnesses along with other Amtrak 188 families, said the verdict does not negate the "public accountability" that the trial brought. The victims eventually heard Bossian's lawyer admit that the engineer had made a mistake, he said.
"It provides some measure of closure to the eight families who had lost loved ones, and the scores of others who were catastrophically injured by Mr. Bossian's conduct that day," Kline said.
Philadelphia's top prosecutor declined to pursue criminal charges, but the attorney general's office later took over.
"There is no doubt that the excessive speed of the train operated by the defendant resulted in the death and injury of its passengers," the state attorney general's office said in a statement.
The accident prompted Congress to raise the previous $200 million limit on settlements for individual Amtrak accidents to $295 million.
The jury began to weigh the charges on Friday morning after a substitute had to step in because a jury member had died in the family. Thereafter the jury began its deliberations from the very beginning.