Federal investigators were poring over some of the mangled carriages that by Thursday morning had been removed from where a passenger train derailed just outside Philadelphia 36 hours before, killing seven.

Safety officials, however, planned to give the Amtrak engineer who was driving the train more time to recuperate from the head injuries he sustained in the crash before interviewing him.

He was named as Brandon Bostian, 32, from New York City, by Reuters and a number of media outlets on Wednesday. Official confirmation of his identity was not immediately forthcoming.

A lawyer for Bostian said the engineer could not remember the crash or his actions in operating the train as it approached the curve in the tracks just north of the main train station in Philadelphia during the Washington DC to New York service on Tuesday night, and had “no explanation” for what happened, ABC reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), investigating the crash, said on Wednesday that the train drove through he curve at up to 106mph, despite the 50mph speed limit that applies to that tight bend.

The engineer was briefly questioned by the Philadelphia police on Wednesday but has not yet sat down with the NTSB, board member Robert Sumwalt said.

“This person has gone through a very traumatic event, and we want to give him an opportunity to convalesce for a day or so before we interview him,” Sumwalt told a press conference, describing an interview with the engineer as a “high priority”.

Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter launched a strong attack on Bostian’s alleged actions.

“Clearly it was reckless in terms of the driving by the engineer, there is no way in the world that he should have been going that fast into the curve … he was irresponsible in his actions. I don’t know what was going on with him … but there is really no excuse that could be offered, literally, unless he had a heart attack,” Nutter told CNN.

The mayor said he had heard reports that the train departed from Washington late and could have been trying to make up time.

“You would almost have to be an idiot, even if you are trying to make up time, doing 100mph on a curve, but … you don’t endanger passengers … I’m sure the seven people who lost their lives would not have minded being another 20, 25 or 30 minutes late as opposed to dying in a train wreck,” Nutter said.

Sumwalt, however, said: “We want to get the facts before we start making judgements.”

Reuters, quoting a city official on condition of anonymity, described Bostian as a University of Missouri graduate with a business degree who had been an Amtrak engineer for more than four years and a conductor prior to that.



Bostian is cooperating with the authorities, has given a blood sample and turned over his cellphone, and had no health issues to speak of, ABC reported. He sustained a concussion and a head laceration requiring 14 staples. Bostian recalled driving the train to the area of the crash generally, then later getting tossed around, regaining consciousness and finding his bag and cellphone before dialing 911, the lawyer told the network.

He was treated for his injuries at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and released, a hospital spokesman said.

Bostian lives in the Forest Hills section of Queens, according to social media profiles, public records, friends and neighbors. A friend who knows him in New York City told MSNBC Bostian was a “cheerful guy” and a rail buff. The acquaintance, who did not want to be identified, said he last saw Bostian two weeks ago and talked about trains with him.

He added that Bostian loved his job: “We didn’t meet because of trains, but bonded because we both are fans. The notion that he made it, so to speak, driving trains is of no surprise to me.”

The young engineer got a job with Amtrak right out of college, according to his LinkedIn profile, first working as a conductor and then an engineer for a total of nine years. NBC Bay Area reported that Bostian also worked at Bay Area commuter rail line Caltrain several years ago when the agency contracted with Amtrak. It was not clear what job he held there.

The superintendent of the Forest Hills building where Bostian has lived alone for two and a half years said he was a “really nice person”.

“Nice person, always said, ‘Hello, Jose, how are you?’” said Jose Quinones. “Nice, very quiet.”

Quinones’ wife, Zuma Quinones, said she didn’t know Bostian was an engineer and was stunned by the news. She said he was friendly. She said if he returned home, she would tell him: “Welcome, you’re home. Thank God.”

‘A lot of folks got banged up’

Investigators at the scene of the Amtrak crash outside Philadelphia. Guardian

Investigators and emergency personnel were working at the crash site as the identities of the fatalities emerged, amid concerns that more victims could yet be discovered in the wreckage or vicinity. The train carried 238 passengers and five crew members. In addition to the seven people confirmed dead in the crash, more than 200 were injured.

Footage from news helicopters in the immediate aftermath of the crash showed emergency personnel picking through the site by the light of their personal flashlights. The scene was later partially lit by lights mounted on emergency service helicopters, but the crash site was a dark scene of chaos as passengers began to emerge or be pulled from the wreckage.

Recorded dispatches from fire department radio during the early rescue operation featured fire officers describing a “mass casualty incident”, calling for “all the manpower” available from emergency services, and confirming that “there are still people to be rescued” in addition to “people on the track”, according to local Philadelphia TV.

Sumwalt said data from the train’s black box recorder would be analyzed, along with video footage from forward-facing cameras attached to the train and myriad other aspects including the condition of the tracks and signaling equipment, and the training and performance of the five-person crew.



The crash seemed likely to heighten moves to expand a system known as positive train control, or PTC, designed to prevent high-speed derailments. No such system was in effect at the site of the Amtrak crash, officials said.

“We feel that had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred,” Sumwalt said.

Positive train control automatically slows or even halts trains moving too fast or heading into a danger zone. Under current law the rail industry must adopt the technology by the end of the year.

Philadelphia should have been a pass-through for most aboard the Amtrak Northeast Regional Service 188 between Washington DC and New York City. Yet the trip, which is made by about 22 Amtrak trains on a normal day, ended up sending 136 patients to hospitals in the region, including dozens to Temple University hospital, where Dr Herbert E Cushing is chief medical officer.

“There are a lot of folks that got banged up when they rattled around,” Cushing said of patients tossed inside train cars who came to Temple, a level one trauma centre.

Late on Wednesday 23 patients in mostly stable condition remained at Temple. Eight patients were in critical condition, three awaited surgery that evening and most had left the hospital after treatment. Two patients were sent home on Wednesday morning.

The scant “good news” in the aftermath of the crash was the relative lack of head injuries, according to Cushing.

As of Wednesday afternoon the hospital was only beginning to restabilise from the deadly derailment. The crush of ambulances carrying train crash victims had ended hours earlier. Most media moved from one press conference to the next in swarms, while some reporters remained stationed near the wreckage.

Outside the hospital a worker told the Guardian she was “proud of her team”, but declined to identify herself as she was not authorised to speak to media.

‘He was a loving son, nephew and cousin’

Susan and Howard Zemser, the parents of US Naval Academy midshipman Justin Zemser, speak to the media outside their home in New York on Wednesday 13 May. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

Not all the victims had officially been named by Thursday morning. Five identities had been confirmed.

James Marshall Gaines III, a 48-year-old from Princeton, New Jersey, was named as one of the victims. The father-of-two, who worked for the Associated Press, was returning home after attending meetings in Washington. He is survived by his 16-year-old son, Oliver, and daughter, Anushka, 11.

Associated Press employee James Gaines pictured on 7 September 2006. Photograph: Santos Chaparro/AP

Also identified was 20-year-old US Naval Academy midshipman Justin Zemser. Zemser, an only child, was on leave from Annapolis, Maryland, and was on his way home to Rockaway Beach, New York when the train derailed.

“He was a loving son, nephew and cousin, who was very community minded,” his parents said in a statement. “This tragedy has shocked us in the worst way.”

Zemser was just about to finish his second year at the Naval Academy.

“The Naval Academy is deeply saddened to report that a midshipman was named as one of the passengers who lost their life in the Amtrak train,” Jennifer Erickson, US Naval Academy spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Abid Gilani, a senior vice-president at Wells Fargo & Co’s commercial real estate division, was named on Wednesday night as another of those killed. He was originally from Canada and split his time between Washington and New York. He was a married father of two.

Nutter, the Philadelphia mayor, said the search remained “very, very active”. People may have been thrown from the train, he said.

Rachel Jacobs, chief executive of ApprenNet, was mourned by friends and family. She was the daughter of former Michigan senator Gilda Jacobs and was described as a “dynamic” mother.

Rachel Jacobs, CEO of ApprenNet. Photograph: Screengrab via CNN

The identity of another victim, Derrick Griffith, 42, dean of student affairs and enrollment management for Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York, was confirmed on Wednesday night by a college spokeswoman.



Baltimore businessman and father Bob Gildersleeve boarded the train but was not heard from again by his family and is still missing. On Wednesday, his 13-year-old son Marc stood outside a hotel in Philadelphia that was being used as a gathering station by the authorities, holding a picture of his father.

At least a dozen passengers are still missing, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday morning.

The Associated Press contributed to this report