Defense argues rock throwers along tracks were to blame for deadly 2015 Amtrak derailment
PHILADELPHIA - Prosecutors in the trial of Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian told jurors Bostian was "grossly negligent" when his train derailed in 2015 killing eight.
Bostian, 38, is charged with 8 counts of involuntary manslaughter and hundreds of charges of reckless endangerment in the crash along the Frankford Curve.
The prosecution in opening statements argued Bostian "had one job and it was to control the speed of his train", but he failed.
Christopher Phillips, a prosecutor in the office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General, said Bostian "had no chance of making that turn" when all 7 train cars derailed while on the "most dangerous part of the track," the Frankford Curve.
The defense lays the blame squarely on the backs of what it calls "criminals" who threw rocks at two trains that night as Bostian was rolling through on his train.
"This is the fault of the rock-throwers," defense attorney Robert Goggin said. "They caused the catastrophe."
The defense also claims Amtrak failed to take precautions knowing the rock-throwers were out there along the rails.
The first witnesses were police officers and a medical examiner, who took jurors through a series of pictures and described the injuries of the dead.
Another witness described, after being thrown from the train, and calling for help, she asked Bostian several times to use his cell phone to call her father before he relented and gave her the phone.
She said Bostian did not identify himself as an Amtrak employee, and despite Bostian’s claim he lost his bearings leading to the derailment, he told her they were at "Frankford Junction" when asked.
The prosecution told jurors later at a hospital Bostian asked a detective "if he was in New York."
Defense Attorney Goggin said the reason for the discrepancy was that Bostian was "concussed" in the crash.
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