The National Transportation Safety Board’s official findings over the cause of last year’s deadly Amtrak crash has been described as a ‘whitewash’ by survivors.
Federal investigators laid the blame at train engineer Brandon Bostian who they said was distracted by a radio call stating another train had been struck with a rock, immediately before his train derailed.
"Excluding all the other suspects that we looked at, the best we could come up with was that he was distracted from this radio conversation about the damaged train and forgot where he was," NTSB chairman Christopher Hart said.
Bostian then accelerated the Washington to New York train as it entered a sharp curve, causing the crash which killed eight people.
"The part that doesn’t make sense is how does one accelerate when you’re distracted?" The inclination is to slow down," said survivor Duy Nguyen, of New Jersey, who attended the hearing.
Lawyer Judy Livingston called it ‘an awful explanation to the families who have lost loved ones.’
"The answers they came up with were woefully inadequate," Livingston said.
NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson acknowledged there was only minimal evidence when coming to this conclusion.
"We can only evaluate the evidence that we have and the preponderance of evidence that we had to work with pointed us to a loss of situational awareness," Knudson said.
The lack of the positive train control system onboard was also a contributing factor, the NTSB said.
This works on GPS technology which can automatically slow down a train that exceeds a speed limit on a given stretch of track.
An Amtrak statement said it ‘deeply regrets the tragic derailment’ and is currently review the NTSB findings and recommendations.
Train engineer Bostian was not present at the hearing and has been suspended without pay since the crash.
