PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The trial of the Amtrak operator at the helm of the fatal 2015 crash in Philadelphia resumed Monday, where prosecutors played scanner calls from a SEPTA train engineer who said something hit his train the night Amtrak 188 derailed.
Ex Amtrak operator Brandon Bostian faces eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and 246 counts of reckless endangerment for the derailment that killed eight people and injured hundreds more.
The SEPTA engineer testified on Monday that rocks “shattered” the windshield of his SEPTA car. He said he abruptly stopped the train and called it into dispatch.
“I just got glass in my face,” said the conductor on the scanner recording.
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Bostian has said he was concentrating intently on the scanners, trying to find out how that SEPTA train may have been hit by a rock. That was the last thing he remembers hearing before Amtrak 188 derailed.
Officials concluded Bostian had no alcohol or drugs in his system and that his phone was not on at the time. Investigators pointed to Bostian’s “loss of situational awareness” as the cause of the crash.
Bostian had told a detective he next remembered waking up to the sounds of helicopters above, then standing up and seeing seven cars of passengers off the tracks. He said it felt like a dream.
He was going more than 100 miles per hour around the Frankford curve when it crashed — double the speed limit.
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Prosecutors also played a couple of the nearly two-dozen 911 calls that frantic passengers made to report the crash. Bostian told the detective he remembered powering on his phone when he realized what happened and also dialing 911.
Testimony is expected to continue through the week.