Brandon Bostian of New York City worked as an engineer for Caltrain, a public agency responsible for a rail line linking San Francisco with San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, in 2010 and 2011 after training with Amtrak in Oakland.
Bostian, 32, apparently was at the controls of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train No. 188 from Washington to New York when it entered a curve at twice the recommended speed limit and sailed off its track Tuesday night in Philadelphia, according to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
All seven cars of the train derailed just before 9:30 p.m.; the lead car separated from the others and came to rest in a crumpled mess alongside the track.
Dozens of the train’s 243 passengers and crew were injured in addition to the eight killed.
Bostian was hired by Amtrak to drive trains between San Francisco and Gilroy, south of San Jose, in 2010 and 2011, Caltrain said.
Amtrak had a contract to provide conductors, engineers and maintenance workers for the Northern California train line until 2011, when it was outbid by TransitAmerica Services Inc. of St. Joseph, Mo., which still operates the system.
“We awarded the contract to a new provider, and most of their employees moved to work in other sites around the country,” Caltrain spokeswoman Jayme Ackemann told the newspaper.
Bostian lived in San Francisco’s Mission Terrace neighborhood when he worked on Caltrain, the newspaper said.
Ackermann said she could not discuss Bostian’s tenure with Caltrain because she did not have access to his personnel file since he worked for Amtrak, not her agency.
She said it was not unusual for railroad employees to relocate frequently.
“There are limited areas for people to work,” Ackermann said.
“The world of rail operations is relatively small, and workers tend to move around a lot,” she said.
Amtrak declined to discuss the matter, the newspaper said.
But Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter displayed no such reluctance, calling Bostian’s actions at the controls of the train “reckless,” the newspaper said.
Officials with the National Transportation and Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, said they were trying to find out why the train was traveling so fast — 102 mph — when it tried to navigate a curve with a speed limit of 50 mph, but did say Bostian applied the train’s emergency brakes seconds before the derailment.
