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On May 12, 2015, Amtrak 188 derailed while speeding along the Frankford Curve section of track Philadelphia, PA. 8 people died in the crash along with 200+ injuries. At the time of the crash, the train was going in excess of 100 mph which was more than twice the sped limit of 50 mph for the Frankford Curve. This was why the train crashed. The engineer of the train was a man by the name of Brandon Bostian who by all accounts was a model employee. He was deeply involved in train safety and proper procedures, including long forums posts about the lack of safety technology installed on Amtrak routes. Amtrak 188/The Frankford Curve did not have Positive Train Control (PTC) or any sort of safety technology. Investigators have said that PTC would have prevented this accident as the train would have automatically slowed down upon entering the Frankford Curve. But because of budget cuts and general congressional douchebaggery, Amtrak never got around to this before the crash. This would prove to be a mistake. But why was Bostian speeding at a notoriously dangerous section of the track? (The Frankford Curve was host to a 80 man fatality back in 1943) This is the confounding part of Amtrak 188. Bostian was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He was not sleeping nor using his cell phone. By all accounts, Bostian prioritized safety more than most people. He loved trains and Amtrak engineer was his dream job. So what happened? Bostian claims to have little memory of the events leading up to the crash, but the resulting investigation determined the most probable sequence of events ---Bostian received radio chatter of a nearby SEPTA train on the same track struck by rocks thrown by some punks ---Bostian was more concentrated on the radio chatter and determining if he was in danger than remembering his location at the moment ---Bostian forgot where he was in relation to the Frankford Curve and did not slow down as he thought he was farther away from the curve ---Crash A lack of "situational awareness" was the cause of the accident as determined by the NTSB. For his part, Bostian claims he was struck by rocks as well, but no evidence has proven his claim. Amtrak settled with the victims to the tune of 265 million with the share to be decided later. But what of Bostian? Would he face criminal charges for his role in a true accident? As of Tuesday, the Philly DA office decided not to charge Bostian. Seth Williams posted:The evidence indicates that the derailment was caused by the engineer operating the train far in excess of the speed limit,” the DA’s office said in a written statement. “However, we cannot conclude that the evidence rises to the high level necessary to charge the engineer or anyone else with a criminal offense. We have no evidence that the engineer acted with criminal “intent” or criminal “knowledge” within the special meaning of those terms under Pennsylvania law for purposes of criminal charges. Nor do we believe there is sufficient evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, criminal recklessness, which would be the only other basis for criminal liability. Pennsylvania law specially states that one acts with criminal recklessness when a person “consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk.” Based on the available information, we do not have evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the engineer “consciously” disregarded the risk. Prosecuting train derailments is hard if the engineer was proven to be driving in good faith (i.e. no drugs or cell phones). https://billypenn.com/2017/05/09/why-phillys-da-wont-bring-charges-in-fatal-amtrak-188-train-derailment/ posted:Experts question whether Williams or any district attorney would even know how to prosecute him. “By my guess nobody remotely associated with the local office of a district attorney has ever investigated a similar derailment,” said Bob Pottroff, a nationally-known train accident lawyer. “They have to be 100 percent dependent on federal authorities who are deeply embedded with the railroad industry.” Pottroff would be right. Though Amtrak accidents occur about five to 10 times a year in Philadelphia (the vast majority causing no deaths and few injuries), charges have not been brought forward against an engineer during Williams’ time in office and likely going back much farther. “It is basically a foreign language requirement for a prosecutor’s office on a local basis,” Pottroff said. “The expertise needed to prosecute those cases would be hard (to come by).” So that's that then. Bostian is cleared and this tragedy can be laid to rest? Well there was a pretty significant twist earlier today and what inspired me to make this thread. The lawyers representing the victims met with the Philly DA's office (more on that later) and begged them to reconsider not pressing charges. The DA office declined. So the victims's laywers got in front of a judge in order to force private criminal charges against Bostian. And well ... http://www.philly.com/philly/business/law/Judge-orders-DA-to-charge-Amtrak-engineer.html posted:Philadelphia Municipal Court President Judge Marsha Neifield on Thursday ordered the city District Attorney’s Office to reverse course and criminally charge Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian with involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. I'll be honest, I had no idea private citizens could get a judge to force a DA to bring criminal charges against another private citizen. I thought civil court existed for that type of grievance and this development is intriguing. So I have two questions out of this story. Should Bostian have been charged with reckless endangerment and anything else for his role in the Amtrak 188 crash by the DA office? I think the victims are barking up the wrong tree. The real guilty parties are the idiots who threw rocks at the SEPTA train and the lack of PTC. it is well noted that driving trains and using cell phones simultaneously is a bad idea and is banned for a reason. But talking to people over the radio is no better yet is part of the engineer's job description. And what of the prosecutioral latitude given to the DA office in this case and all others? If private citizens feel the DA office is not doing its job, are they in the right to try and seek criminal (not civil) charges. For example, what if a watchdog group found a friendly judge that would force charges against the financial crisis perpetrators? The government clearly dropped the ball on finance and civil rights cases among others and there is little recourse to those aggrieved by the decision. the PA AG has until tomorrow to press charges before the statute of limitations expires. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speaking of the Philly DA office, they're in a load of poo poo right now. Mainly Seth Williams, the District Attorney. He has had his law license suspended as he awaits federal bribery charges for acceptance cash, gifts, etc for political and legal favors. He also got in lots of trouble for hiring Frank Fina, the main player in the Kathleen Kane debacle to his office. Not to mention his girlfriend was charged for several counts of B&E in a bizzare story. There is a clown car primary of candidates running to replace him. 7 Democrats and the token Republican are in the race. I live outside city limits so I haven't been paying much attention to the race And you got the Bill Cosby trial out in MontCo. My prediction, Cosby will walk as that trial is a debacle.
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May 12, 2017 00:28
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In terms of the media circus and overall lawyering competence, there is still a long way to go until this trial reaches peak OJ. The issues is that Cosby's lawyers have sufficiency muddled the waters with delays, pre-trial motions, general posturing and have way more wins than losses in the scheme of things. Charges were filed in December 2015. The trial will finally start in June 2017. That's 18 months of legal bullshit in the main time http://www.vulture.com/2017/05/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-trial-explained.html is a good overview of the whole situation. Way back in 2005, noted wanker Bruce Castor dropped the initial charges for lack of evidence and agreed the DA's office would not prosecute Cosby for his civil suit testimony. Said civil suit was petty damming for Cosby. He basically copped to drugging many women with Quaaludes resulting in "consensual" sex with Constand and whoever else. However, for whatever reason, most of that civil deposition is inadmissible in his criminal trial. And of all the numerous other women who have accused Cosby, only one can testify besides Constant. Local news also did poison the jury pool by airing most of Cosby's deposition on TV. So you got a jury from Pittsburgh for a trail in Norristown who will be sequestered in Philly. yeehaw
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May 12, 2017 05:35
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Rangpur posted:I hear enough people complaining about this that I really think the tourism office ought to publish a brochure or something. But the trick is, you need to find the local ward leader and inflate your neck pouches as large as you can. You don't have to make them bigger, just puff them up enough to look worthy of respect. My new gig as a Dizzy Gillespie impersonator will go great now  Rangpur posted:The smash hit comedy that is the Philadelphia DA's office keeps the hits rolling in by electing a former defense attorney to the position. (Technically Krasner only won the Democratic primary, but in Philly politics, that's the same as winning the election about 99% of the time. Reactions range from "there was a primary yesterday?" to OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE, CRIMINALS WILL BE CUTTING DOWN LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS IN THE STREETS, BRANDON BOSTIAN WILL BE GIVEN A TRAIN TO DRIVE DOWN BROAD STREET TO SATE HIS LUST FOR BLOOD WHILE KRASNER LUBES HIS ROD WITH WIDOWS' TEARS I didn't pay too much attention to the DA race because I live outside city limits, but Krasner seems like an alright dude. I liked his ad the best. Though I am a bit surprised he won by 20 points in a 7 man race. Going from noted Death Penalty Aficionado Lynne Abraham to Krasner in under a decade is one hell of (good) jump. My fondest Seth Williams memory is probably him telling the cops to gently caress off after the Shady McCoy barfight. Speaking of the trainman, Bostian surrendered to the charges filed by the State after a judge told them to do it. I want to see the defense call Seth Williams as a witness just for the irony. donoteat posted:Krasner seemed like by far the best man for the job, certainly better than Democratic machine-endorsed El Shabazz. I did my democratic duty and voted for Krasner yesterday. All the stores raisng prices and threatening layiffs is pretty blatant free market capitalistic bullshit and I hope more than enough people don't fall for it. As for the tax itself, I'm sure we could rehash the "sales tax are regressive" argument until we all resemble Dizzy. Though I'm not holding my breath the tax money will go to schools instead of funding the pensions for various PPA garbagemen Nissin Cup Nudist fucked around with this message at 05:05 on May 19, 2017 |
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May 19, 2017 05:03
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The triannual SEPTA strike was at the end of last year and lasted one whole week. They signed a 5 year deal, so that should last a while.
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May 19, 2017 17:53
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