NTSB Continues Amtrak Derailment Probe, Diluting Some Theories and Rumors
By Robin Culverwell
PHLADELPHIA (CBS) -- Trains are once again rolling through last week's Amtrak derailment site, while the investigation into the cause of the crash continues.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board continue looking at several possible factors, including the operating signals, which at this point investigators say were working properly.
The NTSB says the engineer of that Septa train which had been hit by some sort of projectile, its windshield shattered, noticed nothing out of the ordinary on Amtrak train #188 as it passed the disabled Septa train.
The NTSB now has Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian's cell phone records. And while there is activity on the day of the crash, investigators cannot say yet whether any of that activity occurred while Amtrak 188 was in motion.
Furthermore, investigators have to synchronize the time stamps on the cell phone records, the locomotive event recorder, radio communications, and videos of the event. They point out that devices can be off by seconds, and seconds are important in an investigation such as this.
And finally, the NTSB is examining engineer Bostian's training and work records. It has been reported that he had worked the Washington-to-New York route for only a few weeks, but in fact he had worked the Washington-Boston route for about three years. So the expectation is that he would have been quite familiar with the curve where the train was racing along at more than twice its authorized speed.
