Frankford Junction Wreck 3 years later

it's an accident locals like me remember well and it's one we'll never forget only a 40-minute drive from where I'm sitting right now I still get the chills as I go over that same curve where it all happened thinking about what happened or what could have happened where the deadliest accident on the northeastern corridor since 1987 occurred and three years later people still talk about this crash [Music] this is the story of Amtrak 188 [Music] on May 12th 2015 M track regional 188 was running between Boston to Washington DC the train had 7 a.m. fleet cars being led by a c64 601 which was only a year old at the time and one of the first ACS 64 is Amtrak received 32 year old Brandon Bostian was the engineer that day and had worked on the route for a few weeks now it departed 30th Street Station at around 9:00 10:00 p.m. with its next stop Trenton however further down the line there was trouble a septa train was reporting a shattered windshield after some people threw some rocks at the lead car blindingly engineer radio transmissions distracted the engineer for a brief moment and listened in to the septa train calling for help this made him believe he was further down the track past the curve sped his train up to 106 instead of the 80-mile prior approach speed when he didn't know he hadn't even hit the curb yet the speed limit of approaching the curb was around 80 miles an hour with a 50 mile per hour speed limit within the curve when finally realized this mistake of emergency braking the locomotive began the tip and left the curve at over 100 miles an hour the am fleets tumbled behind and some of them ripped apart from the excessive speed as they came off the tracks catenary wires were also damaged when the rear panel graph locks to connection to the wire and was flung clean off the roof of the engine finally after the war of the crash subsided a barrage of 911 calls rescuers away that when they arrived some of the lightly and unhurt passengers and when they arrived on the scene some of the lightly injured and unhurt passengers helped haul away the more seriously injured passengers Brandon Bostian suffered a concussion after his head slammed into the dashboard of the locomotive any airbag should be put into the cabs in the future Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said that the wreck was an absolute disastrous mess and he was very stunned at how many people were able to walk away from such a violent impact on Sylvania Governor Tom Wolf's said that anything that the state can do we stand ready to do that to help out those victims Amtrak was deeply saddened by the loss of life from the accident and President Barack Obama even gave his condolences after the wreck saying that he and Michelle were shocked and deeply saddened to ear and their thoughts and prayers going to their families in the end eight people died and over 200 were injured it was the deadliest accident on the northeastern corridor since the 1987 chase maryland incident and there's the question how can this happen and why well when Brandon Bostian heard the septa train call in he literally lost all situational awareness with his location almost like he withdraws we thought it was past occurred at an area such as Florida but trains increased their speed to 105 miles an hour as seen here [Music] Brendan Boston lawyer and Austin himself even stated that he knew very little about what happened before the crash leading up to the impact thanks to that nasty concussion Asus name when his head hit the dashboard which would have been like had on collision with a car in the passenger seat without working airbags unlike previously discussed crashes in Boston the non drugs wasn't an alcoholic or a tank terroristic or suicidal intent heck he wasn't even using his phone or staring at trespassers or the occasional foamer he simply just forgot where he was and some say six of one was possibly hit by rock before the crash but most likely those were loose ballast rock flying right into the engines nose as it derailed and plowed off the tracks not to mention this isn't the first time a train derailed by this spot in 1943 the Pennsylvania Railroad Congressional Limited derailed nearby the very spot 188 crash when a hot box occurred on the seventh part of the train derailed all the cars behind that record killed 79 injured hundreds teeth time to tackle the elephant in the room now that is still subject of debate today if it argued that the curb should have been equipped with positive train control which works a lot like the train protection and warning system used in the UK it uses GPS to know where train it currently is where it's going and how fast it's going which is sent to the local dispatch center but in this case CET C or C Tech located at their edge to the station when it detects the train is either approaching a red signal going too fast past the yellow at risk of colliding with another train possibly a runaway with no engineer in control or if the train is about to hit misaligned switches switched against a trains path it gives advance warning to the engineer usually heard by a series of beeps like this this will give time for the engineer to react accordingly but after a set amount of time usually 10 to 30 seconds the train automatically goes into full emergency stops where it's at locks the controls unless it's from set the deadline for such a system to be installed was at the end of 2015 according to Congress yes it should have been a little sooner as a result of peach TC was mandated on all Amtrak lines and all the ACO 64's were cleared first the p42 is usually used on the Pennsylvanians however had to wait a little longer before being cleared for the system so a c64 would have to tow them between Harrisburg and Philly and funny enough based through the heritage unit 145 was one of the first P 42 s to be cleared for that line Zepto was also hell-bent on positive train control since the crash and became one of if not the first commuter railroad to have positive train control on all their lines with the war mister line being first on April 18th 2016 until finally the Wilmington Newark Trenton and Paoli Thorndale lines all shared by Amtrak being the last ones to complete positive train control on May 1st 2017 my line the maniac Norristown at PTC fully installed by August 15th 2016 positive train control would have likely prevented this crash all o to this day is still debating even among the rail fans like myself in the end a c64 6:01 which was thought to have been put away for repairs as stated in one of my older videos but now it's been confirmed if 6:01 was deemed damaged beyond repair it will serve as a source of spare parts for now for anything that's still intact in the unit alongside 627 which was also deemed too damaged to fix after hitting a backhoe in Chester a year later Amtrak had to settle plantiffs and planet of damages to victims valued at over 200 million dollars Wow Brandon Bostian however wouldn't face criminal charges according to Philadelphia prosecutors who said this on May 9th 2017 but last year on the second anniversary of the crash may 12 27 teen Boston turned himself in and was arrested and prosecutors presented various charges against Boston he's included involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment however on September 12 2017 Philadelphia judge thomas garrett dismissed all criminal charges much to the frustration of prosecutors victims their families and even locals but this wasn't the end of the story On February 6th of this year after an appeal by PJ's attorney general's office the case was reopened and the same charges were brought against Boston again and we still do not know what the ruling is so far it's been three years since this crash but some rail agencies are still struggling to install positive train control due to its cost and complexity including New Jersey Transit who is already in enough financial trouble with the lack of cars leasing mark coaches and lack of funding thanks Kristy and Trek even threatened to ban service from New York to Trenton on Amtrak trackage if they didn't get PTC installed on a certain date and they're still struggling to do that as of February 16th 2018 that's without mentioning the Hoboken incident that happened not too long ago I still get the chills as I go over that same curve where it all happened even on a septa train but knowing the lesson but knowing the lessons we finally learned after this incident we hopefully shouldn't see another crash [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] on May 12th 2015 Amtrak regional 188 was running between Boston to Washington DC the train had seven am fleet cars being led by acs 64 601 which was only a year old man this traffic it's only like 10 and night who was the scapegoat definitely not as real barn and I'm thinking about undertale now this is what happens when you have a new fandom that your girlfriend has introduced you for introduce you to for over a year now take full control for you even though railfanning still reign supreme mini [Music] alright

Channel: Thunderbolt 1000 Siren Productions

Views: 706,002

Rating: 4.7866206 out of 5

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Id: 42pLh_JW4UE

Length: 13min 47sec (827 seconds)

Published: Sat May 12 2018