BARTLETT, Tenn.– Eight people have died in the tragic Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia, and many wanted to know what caused this to happen.
NTSB officials said the train was going twice the speed limit as it went around a curve.
Officials believed 32-year-old Brandon Bostian, from Bartlett, applied the emergency brakes seconds before derailment.
However he’s not talking to investigators and his attorney said Bostian doesn’t remember anything.
“Anybody that knows anything about Brandon that’d be one of the first things they’d tell you; he’s always been obsessed with trains,” said Stefanie McGee Thursday afternoon.
McGee said the shock was starting to wear off that Bostian was the engineer behind the deadly Amtrak crash.
She said now she just felt bad.
“This would be like the last thing in the world he would want to be part of,” she said.
McGee and Bostian worked together back in 2000 at the Bartlett Express, the weekly newspaper of the Memphis suburb.
McGee remembered him as a sweet, gangly kid, always ready to tackle the next story.
She said he brought a quirky humor to the newsroom.
“Very, very corny sense of humor. Loved puns,” she said with a smile.
Bartlett High School wouldn’t speak to WREG about Bostian but confirmed he graduated in 2001.
He then went on to attend the University of Missouri.
McGee said he hasn’t lived in Bartlett since he left for college, but they have kept in touch.
“I wished him a happy birthday a few weeks ago on Facebook and he said whatever I did worked because he did,” she said.
McGee said she hasn’t reached out to Bostian since the crash.
She said some of the media reports that place blame on him were hard to hear.
She hoped people wait for all of the facts to come out before jumping to conclusions.
“He’s always wanted to do this, to drive trains to be part of that industry so I know he has got to be devastated,” she said.
A family member WREG spoke with on the phone said they did not have a comment.
