Enthusiastic, sincere, a little nerdy, a lover of puns and corny humor, and someone you can trust — these are all phrases that friends use to describe Brandon Bostian.
Bostian, 32, is originally from Memphis, graduated from Bartlett High School in 2001 and pursued his passion as a brakeman in college. He hired on with Amtrak as a conductor in July 2006. Bostian finally moved up to passenger engineer in December 2010, realizing his lifelong dream.
The boy loved trains, and the man … he loved them too.
Childhood friend Lee Allen said he can’t imagine Bostian ending up in any other career. “There are guys who dream of being astronauts. There are guys who dream of being architects. He’s a guy who dreamed of driving trains.”
Allen and other friends were surprised and saddened to hear that Bostian was the engineer driving Amtrak Train 188 when it derailed near Philadelphia on May 12. Federal investigators say the train was going 106 mph before it derailed along a notoriously tight curve rated at a maximum 50 mph. Eight people died and more than 200 were injured in the wreckage.
It was the deadliest American train accident in nearly six years. Some initial lawsuits have already been filed by people injured in the accident. See details at bit.ly/Amtrak-lawsuits. Separately, the Philadelphia district attorney’s office also has said it is investigating and will decide whether to bring charges.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) cleared Amtrak on May 18 to resume service along that stretch of railroad (the Northeast Corridor). The corridor, which runs between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md., is one of the nation’s most congested and highest volume passenger rail corridors.
National media have reported via Bostian’s attorney, Robert S. Goggin III of Philadelphia, that the engineer suffered a concussion in the crash, requiring more than a dozen staples to close a head injury and stitches to repair an injured leg. Goggin has repeatedly stated that Bostian has no memory of the crash and was not on his cell phone or influenced by drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.
Blood tests are being conducted by Amtrak, with a sample also sent to the NTSB’s independent lab for more extensive testing.
A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) briefing on May 14 reported that Bostian had completed his FRA-required physical just last month and that he was “extremely cooperative” in an NTSB interview conducted earlier that day.
Facts that emerged from the interview were that the engineer has no memory of events after passing through the North Philadelphia station, did not feel fatigued or sick, and felt comfortable with the train’s equipment.
He has worked out of New York City since 2012 and had been on this particular job for several weeks, making the round trip from New York to D.C. and back once a day, five days a week.
In the interview he demonstrated a very good working knowledge of the territory, speed limitations and other factors, according to NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt, who conducted the May 14 media briefing.
Train 188 had three conductors, but only the two assistant conductors were able to be interviewed. The first was in the fourth car (the café car), and she remembered a full crew safety briefing that included speed restrictions before departing Washington.
About three or four minutes after leaving Philadelphia, she heard transmissions between her engineer and the engineer of a local commuter train (who said something struck his train and broke the windshield, so he was putting his train into an emergency stop).
She thought Bostian might also have mentioned that something struck his train too.
The NTSB has not been able to confirm any strike to the Amtrak train, but the board is getting the FBI to examine circular damage spreading out from the lower left portion of the Amtrak windshield.
The other assistant conductor was in the seventh passenger car (the last one) and noticed no problems before the accident.
Recalling an old friend
Lee Allen, who now lives near Huntsville, Ala., said he and Bostian were best friends since both were in the fifth grade at Altruria Elementary School in Bartlett, continuing through high school and remaining in touch even though they attended different universities.
In recent years, they have kept up through Facebook posts and text messages.
Allen said he has not spoken directly to Bostian since the accident and doesn’t know the details of what happened. But he commented, “Him being involved in a train wreck is not anything I would ever think of.”
He described Bostian as a great guy who got him into Boy Scouts, loved science fiction and loved to crack bad jokes and puns. Allen also said he knows Bostian as a “super-dependable and trustworthy guy.”
Allen was supportive of his friend in commenting on the train derailment.
“In my mind, there is NO way he was doing anything that was not aboveboard.”
Bartlett city clerk Stefanie McGee was a staff writer who worked alongside Bostian at The Bartlett Express when he was in high school, and she was the news editor during his last full-time summer at the newspaper. She is about four years older and remembers him as a hardworking, enthusiastic young man.
“He was probably the most enthusiastic high school intern we ever had,” McGee said. “He would love doing anything we would ask him to do.”
Even back then, he was always talking about trains, she said.
They kept in touch via social media over the intervening years, and he visited her at work on a trip back home a few years ago.
When asked about his temperament and character, she said he definitely is not a thrill seeker.
“He’s just a really sweet kid,” she said. “… Just a goofy kid with a corny sense of humor.”
It’s painful for her to think of him dealing with the aftermath of the train derailment because she knows how hard he must be taking it.
“My heart just kind of breaks for him and his family,” McGee said. “And my heart also breaks for the people who lost someone in the accident.”
Editor’s note: Videos of all NTSB media briefings are available on their webpage for this crash at ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/2015_philadelphia_pa.aspx.
