Judge rules Amtrak crash an accident, not crime
An unusual, 11th-hour attempt to put an Amtrak engineer behind bars for a deadly 2015 derailment in Philadelphia unraveled Tuesday as a judge dismissed the case without trial because he found the evidence pointed to an accident, not negligence.
Judge Thomas
Gehret’s rationale echoed the thinking of city prosecutors, whose decision in May not to charge engineer Brandon Bostian led a victim’s family to seek charges on its own as a statute of limitations loomed.
Bostian, 34, hugged his lawyer as Gehret made his ruling at the end of a four-hour preliminary hearing that saw seven witnesses reliving aspects of the May 12, 2015 crash, including gruesome details of tattered cars and limbs strewn along the tracks.