NTSB: Amtrak train going 106 mph before crash, results show

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Thursday, May 14, 2015
VIDEO: Engineer declines to give statement to police
The train?s engineer was treated at the hospital after the crash, then spent hours in a Philadelphia police station on Wednesday.

The Amtrak train that crashed in Tuesday night's deadly wreck was likely traveling at more than 100 mph before it derailed, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Wednesday.

That finding was based on a preliminary report, the NTSB said.

The engineer of the train has been identified as 32-year-old Brandon Bostian.

The speed limit on the track leading up to the curve where it crashed is 80 mph, but the train is supposed to slow to 50 mph as it enters the curve.

In a news conference on Wednesday evening, an NTSB spokesman said the train hit a top speed of 106 mph.

The emergency brakes were applied, and the train was going 102 mph when it crashed, preliminary results show.

The NTSB said Amtrak has a system called "Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement, which would have slowed the train.

Meanwhile, Bostian was treated at the hospital after the crash, then spent hours in a Philadelphia police station on Wednesday.

He declined to give a statement, according to Commissioner Charles Ramsey, refusing even after his union lawyer arrived.

Bostian and his attorney avoided the media and left that station through a back door.

The NTSB said it has not yet talked to him. NTSB investigators expect to be on-scene for about a week.

The train's conductor suffered a fractured skull and is in critical condition.