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Happy birthday Ryan Stephen Rogowski!

Stamp out hunger in the Back Mountain

<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) &#8212; The speeding Amtrak engineer involved in a derailment that killed eight people and injured about 200 others in Philadelphia won&#8217;t face criminal charges, the city district attorney&#8217;s office said Tuesday.</p><p>Prosecutors said they can&#8217;t prove engineer Brandon Bostian acted with &#8220;conscious disregard&#8221; when he accelerated the train to 106 mph on a 50 mph curve.</p><p>Federal investigators concluded that Bostian lost track of his location, or &#8220;situational awareness,&#8221; before the May 12, 2015, crash after learning that a nearby commuter train had been struck with a rock. They found no evidence he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol or distracted by a cellphone.</p><p>Lawyers Thomas R. Kline and Robert Mongeluzzi, who represent more than 30 victims and their families, described their clients as bitterly disappointed and said many remain in constant pain two years later.</p><p>&#8220;There is a longing for accountability when you are disabled and in excruciating pain every day,&#8221; Mongeluzzi said. &#8220;The person who was the primary and sole cause of this escaped punishment and you paid the price.&#8221;</p><p>Kline believes that Bostian should at least face reckless endangerment charges, a misdemeanor, if not the more serious charges that require a finding of intent.</p><p>&#8220;If he is allowed to escape responsibility, then it is an invitation for every culpable person who operates a vehicle &#8212; whether it be a train or a car or a bus or a boat &#8212; to say, &#8216;I forgot where I was,&#8217;&#8221; Kline said.</p><p>But the District Attorney&#8217;s Office concluded there was not enough evidence to prove that he consciously disregarded any risks to his passengers. The train had left Philadelphia minutes before, heading toward New York.</p><p>&#8220;We cannot conclude that the evidence rises to the high level necessary to charge the engineer or anyone else with a criminal offense,&#8221; the office said in an unsigned statement.</p><p>The current district attorney, Seth Williams, remains in office although his law license has been suspended amid a federal bribery indictment set for trial May 31. A deputy is overseeing legal decisions, the office has said.</p><p>Amtrak has taken responsibility for the crash and agreed to pay $265 million to settle related claims.</p><p>Bostian has a personal injury suit pending against Amtrak, saying he was left disoriented or unconscious when something struck his train before the crash. His lawyer has rarely commented on the case and did not return a call for comment Tuesday.</p><p>The National Transportation Safety Board called Amtrak&#8217;s long failure to implement automatic speed control throughout the busy Northeast Corridor a contributing factor.</p><p>Friends describe Bostian as a conscientious train enthusiast who had worked his way up to his dream job. In the lawsuit, Bostian said the crash left him with physical and psychological injuries that now make it difficult for him to work.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">This Aug. 21, 2007, file photo shows Amtrak assistant conductor Brandon Bostian outside a train at the Amtrak station in St. Louis. Philadelphia prosecutors said Tuesday, May 9, 2017, Bostian, the speeding Amtrak engineer involved in the May 12, 2015 derailment that killed eight people and injured about 200 others, won't be charged. (Huy Richard Mach/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, File)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_116485417-0a2de5c169fe4dbdbb7fc6564ba01fbd.jpg</photo0><caption0>This Aug. 21, 2007, file photo shows Amtrak assistant conductor Brandon Bostian outside a train at the Amtrak station in St. Louis. Philadelphia prosecutors said Tuesday, May 9, 2017, Bostian, the speeding Amtrak engineer involved in the May 12, 2015 derailment that killed eight people and injured about 200 others, won't be charged. (Huy Richard Mach/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, File)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_116485417-2d5841f289c84ad1b3036ce7942ec765.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">In this May 12, 2015, file photo, emergency personnel work near the wreckage of a New York City-bound Amtrak passenger train following a derailment that killed eight people and injured about 200 others in Philadelphia. Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian won't be charged in the derailment, according to two lawyers for victims of the crash, Tom Kline and Robert Mongeluzzi. KYW-AM first reported Tuesday, May 9, 2017, that the lawyers say Bostian won't be charged. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek, File)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_116485417-2d5841f289c84ad1b3036ce7942ec765.jpg</photo1><caption1>In this May 12, 2015, file photo, emergency personnel work near the wreckage of a New York City-bound Amtrak passenger train following a derailment that killed eight people and injured about 200 others in Philadelphia. Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian won't be charged in the derailment, according to two lawyers for victims of the crash, Tom Kline and Robert Mongeluzzi. KYW-AM first reported Tuesday, May 9, 2017, that the lawyers say Bostian won't be charged. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek, File)</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_116485417-40b66da6cbca44f89435630bce8f77b0.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">In this May 13, 2015, file photo, emergency personnel work near the wreckage of a New York City-bound Amtrak passenger train following a derailment that killed eight people and injured about 200 others in Philadelphia. Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian won't be charged in the May 12, 2015, derailment, according to two lawyers for victims of the crash, Tom Kline and Robert Mongeluzzi. KYW-AM first reported Tuesday, May 9, 2017, that the lawyers say Bostian won't be charged. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_116485417-40b66da6cbca44f89435630bce8f77b0.jpg</photo2><caption2>In this May 13, 2015, file photo, emergency personnel work near the wreckage of a New York City-bound Amtrak passenger train following a derailment that killed eight people and injured about 200 others in Philadelphia. Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian won't be charged in the May 12, 2015, derailment, according to two lawyers for victims of the crash, Tom Kline and Robert Mongeluzzi. KYW-AM first reported Tuesday, May 9, 2017, that the lawyers say Bostian won't be charged. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)</caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By</p><p>By MARYCLAIRE DALE</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Amtrak engineer won’t be charged in deadly Philadelphia train crash