Was he asleep, or what?
Nothing has ever made sense with this.
He was not asleep.
Most of the details of the accident can be found in the NTSB Accident Report.
There were no traces of drugs in his sytem. He did not have his cell phone available.
He had driven a train from New York to Washington earlier that day and was returning when the accident happened. The flight recorders showed that at all times that day his train was operated at proper speed and he was fully compliant with all details of his operating procedures.
The accident happened because he was lost, but he didnt know he was lost. (This is called “Loss of situational awareness” It is common on trains)
He had been distracted by police activity when he got switched to another track to pass a train that had been stopped after being struck in the windshield by a rock, injuring the engineer. He was on the radio, talking to the dispatcher, looking for police and firement on teh tracks, and listening to reports of the other enginneer’s injuries etc.
By the time he was returned his full attention to driving the train, he had passed North Philadelphia station. He erroneously thought he was well past it and that had already past the curve at Frankford. But he has not.
The Northeast corridor is dark, with few landmarks, no signs etc to quickly reorient him.
Based on where he thought he was, he accelerated the train to 106 mph. The speed limit aproaching Frankford is 80 mph. The 106 mph was exactly the proper speed etween Frankford and the Delaware River bridge at Trenton, the section of track where he erroneously thought he was. When he unexpectedly came to the sharp curve at Frankford, he tried to slow down but it was too late. Stopping distances, already long at 106 mph, are 3 times longer for a train than for a car.
Have you ever been drivng on an Interstate at night and lost track of where you were after being distracted by converstaion, daydreaming, or something on the radio etc. I have, a zillion times. And on a highway, there are lots of things to help with your situational awareness. Reflective paint, bright signs, other cars with headlights, well marked curves, etc. The Notheast corridor they don thave these things.
Brosnian was charged with manslaughter, which requires more than gross negligence. It requires willful, conscious, deliberate negligence. In other words one has to be aware that one is being negligent, and proceed anyway. Examples are a drunk driver or a person shooting a gun when he cant see what he’s shooting at.
Brosian was not being willfully negligent. He never should have been charged. The jury reached the correct verdict, and didnt need to ponder it very long.
Lost “situational awareness.” That’s a good one. I’m using it the next time I rob a bank.