page_title: 2015 Philadelphia train derailment
section_title: Investigation and NTSB findings
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Philadelphia train derailment / Investigation and NTSB findings
caption_attribution_description: English: The NTSB Go Team arrives on the scene of the Amtrak train No. 188 derailment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
context_page_description: On May 12, 2015, an Amtrak Northeast Regional train from Washington, D.C. bound for New York City derailed and wrecked on the Northeast Corridor near the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Of 238 passengers and 5 crew on board, 8 were killed and over 200 injured, 11 critically. The train was traveling at 102 mph in a 50 mph zone of curved tracks when it derailed.
  Some of the passengers had to be extricated from the wrecked cars. Many of the passengers and local residents helped first responders during the rescue operation. Five local hospitals treated the injured. The derailment disrupted train service for several days.
  The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the derailment was caused by the train's engineer becoming distracted by other radio transmissions and losing situational awareness, and said that it would have been prevented by positive train control, a computerized speed-limiting system that was operational elsewhere on the Northeast Corridor, but whose activation at the wreck site had been delayed due to regulatory requirements.
context_section_description: After an initial investigation of the scene, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said there was not any indication that the derailment was terrorism-related. An NTSB team also investigated. Preliminary information suggested that the derailment was accidental, according to informal statements made by both agencies, which continue to investigate. In early June authorities stated that they were still investigating the reason the train entered the curve while speeding. Investigators are focusing on why the train entered the curve too fast; it passed 70 mph (110 km/h) at 65 seconds before the wreck, 100 mph (160 km/h) just 16 seconds before, and the emergency brake was applied just seconds before the wreck. All of the locomotives' controls could only be manipulated manually by the engineer when it derailed. The engine was not aging equipment as it was only a year old and had no reported history of unintended acceleration. Bostian was not talking on the phone, texting or using smartphone data during the accident, nor was he using alcohol or drugs. The NTSB has told Congress that human error is a likely factor.
  Bostian's lawyer said that his client does not recall much about the accident because of a concussion he sustained in the wreck, but that "he remembers coming into curve. He remembers attempting to reduce speed and thereafter he was knocked out." The NTSB interviewed Bostian on May 15, who said he had "no recollection" of events after the train passed North Philadelphia station. Lead NTSB investigator Robert Sumwalt said Bostian was "extremely cooperative". Earlier, Sumwalt had said, "for somebody who's been through a traumatic event, this is not at all unusual for human behavior to have the mind blank out things like that, at least for the short term."
  According to The New York Times Magazine, investigators focused on two possibilities: that a rock hit the windshield of the locomotive and caused Bostian to be distracted or disoriented, or that he mistakenly believed he was in a different curve. Both would result in Bostian losing situational awareness and allowing the train to enter the curve too fast.
  At a hearing on May 17, 2016, the National Transportation Safety Board reported that the primary cause of the derailment was a loss of situational awareness by the train's operator, likely caused by distracting radio chatter from a nearby SEPTA train that had experienced an emergency situation. Somebody had thrown a rock at the SEPTA train's windshield, causing it to shatter and blind the conductor. This distraction resulted in the operator believing he was further down the track than he was, thus accelerating the train before the curve rather than after it. The board concluded that the accident would have been entirely prevented if the line was equipped with positive train control, which would have recognized and applied the appropriate speed limit, and chairman Christopher A. Hart called on federal railroad regulators to "end this list of PTC preventable fatalities and injuries right now."
caption: NTSB investigators arrive on the scene of the derailment
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