No Evidence Amtrak Engineer Used Cellphone During Crash

Federal safety investigators said Wednesday records indicate the engineer involved in last month's fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia wasn't using his cellphone while operating the train.

The National Transportation Safety Board said an analysis of the records showed engineer Brandon Bostian didn't make calls, text or use the train's wi-fi system before the train sped into a sharp curve at more than double the speed limit and jumped the tracks.

The May 12 wreck killed eight people and injured more than 200.

It remains unclear why the New York-bound train was traveling at 106 miles an hour into a tight curve—where the posted speed limit is 50 mph—when it derailed. Mr. Bostian has told investigators he doesn't remember what occurred before or during the accident.

A lawyer for Mr. Bostian couldn't immediately be reached for comment. He has said the engineer's phone was stowed away while Mr. Bostian operated the train. Mr. Bostian gave investigators the passcode to his cellphone so they could access records without going to the manufacturer, the NTSB said.

Investigators haven't found any mechanical problems with the train or tracks.

The NTSB said the cellphone analysis has been more complicated than anticipated because the phone carrier has multiple systems that log different types of phone activity, some of which are in different time zones. The agency said it had to validate time stamps in several sets of records to correlate them with the time zone where the accident occurred.

Investigators at the agency's lab in Washington have been examining the phone's operating system to determine if the phone was in "airplane mode" or turned off. The agency said it is obtaining a phone identical to Mr. Bostian's to run tests as part of the probe.

Write to Kris Maher at [e-mail]

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