Amtrak Tragedy: Train Engineer Has 'No Recollection' of Crash as Death Toll Rises to 8
The train engineer in charge of the Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia "has absolutely no recollection of the incident or anything unusual" and "no explanation" for what caused the accident, his lawyer told ABC News on Thursday.
Brandon Bostian, 32, of Queens, New York, was "very distraught" after learning the crash caused several fatalities, his attorney, Robert Goggin, told the network. Bostian was responsible for Train 188, whose locomotive and seven passenger cars went off the tracks north of the Pennsylvania city's downtown area.
The death toll of Tuesday night's accident rose to eight, meanwhile, when recovery teams discovered the body of Bob Gildersleeve, 45, a vice president for a St. Paul, Minnesota, company called EcoLab, in the wreckage on Thursday, USA Today reported.
Philadelphia fire commissioner Derrick Sawyer told the newspaper that cadaver dogs had alerted his crews to the front passenger car, which was especially twisted and badly damaged, and indicated that a body was inside.
The United States Naval Academy had confirmed on Wednesday that another passenger killed in the accident was a midshipman studying at the Annapolis, Maryland institution; the student had been traveling on leave, the academy noted.
Beyond the fatalities, more than 200 riders were injured in the crash, which may have been caused by the train speeding at more than 100 miles an hour in a section of track for which the Federal Railroad Administration had set a 50-mile-per-hour speed limit.
Bostian suffered a concussion and injuries to his legs that required treatment at a hospital, Goggin told ABC News.
"He remembers driving the train," Goggin said. "He remembers going to that area generally (but) has absolutely no recollection of the incident or anything unusual. He recalls -- the next thing he recalls is being thrown around, coming to, finding his bag, getting his cell phone and dialing 911," the lawyer added.
Goggin said Bostian was cooperating with police and was willing to speak with experts from the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation into the accident.
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