A judge has tossed criminal charges against the Amtrak engineer accused of involuntary manslaughter in a Philadelphia derailment that killed eight people.
Judge Thomas Gehret made the decision Tuesday after a preliminary hearing for Brandon Bostian, 34.
Gehret said the evidence offered by prosecutors convinced him that the wreck was “more likely an accident than criminal negligence.”
“We’re elated with this result because it’s the right result,” Bostian’s lawyer Brian McMonagle told reporters outside the courthouse, according to a reporter for local NPR affiliate WHYY.
“Hopefully now Brandon can get on with the rest of his life.”
Bostian’s Washington-to-New York train reached a speed of 106 mph as it took a curve with a 50 mph limit — sending it tumbling off the tracks.
About 200 people were injured in the wreck.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded last year that in the run-up to the crash Bostian was distracted by word that a nearby train had been hit by a rock.
The NTSB said it found no evidence that Bostian was using alcohol, drugs or a cellphone.
He was arrested in May, two years to the day after the deadly derailment.
The case was brought by the Pennsylvania attorney general after Philadelphia prosecutors declined to press charges citing insufficient evidence.
The attorney general’s office took the case after the family of Rachel Jacobs, a woman killed in the crash, took the unusual move of filing a private criminal complaint in municipal court.
Earlier Tuesday, passenger Blair Berman testified that the train was “going way too fast” as it rounded the curve.
Berman heard a “big bang,” then blacked out and awoke in the woods,” she testified.
A cop testified that a tablet device was found in Bostian’s backpack the night of the crash — but it inexplicably vanished before federal investigators had a chance to examine it.
Bostian was suspended without pay for speeding. Amtrak did not immedately return a request for comment on his current status.
