It has been two long years now since that painful crash. What doesn't normally happen, happened that day. On May 12, 2015, a train rushed off the tracks at 106 mph resulting in the death of eight people and injury to more than 200 at Frankford Junction. As reported by USA Today, charges were placed against engineer Brandon Bostian, the driver of the train, who was also injured in the accident.
A terrible train tragedy
Today, two years and a day later, Bostian had charges brought against him. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro declared the charges against Bostian in a statement released earlier today.
The charges included eight counts of involuntary manslaughter, risking a catastrophe and recklessness.
Reports state that instead of decelerating the train, Bostian accelerated it to 106 mph. Unable to handle the curve, the train navigated off tracks at Frankford Junction, resulting in the tragedy.
Robert Goggin III, Bostian’s lawyer made no comments on the charges so far. At the time of the accident though, Goggin had revealed that Bostian could not remember the crash and was devastated when he woke up and learned about it. This sounds a little weird as Bostian is being charged over the incident. But it may not be fair to judge Bostian or many others who cause accidents like these. This incident is not the first of it's kind and it will definitely not be the last.
Who is to be blamed?
In any case, who are we to judge Bostian? He might have been unconscious or perhaps even asleep, as he can definitely not recall causing the tragedy. But the question that remains unanswered is, who is to be blamed? Blaming someone will stop such occurrences but there must definitely be something that we can do in order to prevent such meaningless deaths of our loved ones.
Keeping a check on those running public vehicles may be one thing but you never know when a perfectly sane person, like Bostian, might make a mistake or crack under pressure. We could give harsh sentences to such people to scare others but we need to realize there are people who face mental challenges
In the end, though, Bostian will be punished, so that’s somewhat of a comfort to us.
