Mayor rips 'reckless' Amtrak engineer

Brandon Bostian

The engineer who sped around a train track curve at 106 miles per hour, resulting in the derailment of seven cars and death of eight, says he doesn't remember a thing – and he's now hired an attorney to represent him.

Brandon Bostian, through his attorney, Robert Goggin, said he has no recollection and "no explanation" to offer for the crash, ABC News reported.

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"[He] has absolutely no recollection of the incident," Goggin said, in an interview with "Nightline" on ABC. "The [only] thing he recalls is being thrown around, coming to, finding his bag, getting his cell phone and dialing 911."

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Officials say the speed on the track leading into the curve was 80 miles per hour, and on the curve itself, 50 miles per hour. Investigators, meanwhile, have concluded – based on the recovered black box information – the train was going more than double the speed limit, and Bostian slammed on the brakes shortly before the derailment occurred.

Bostian was an active participant in the battle against Proposition 8.

Bostian suffered a concussion and head injury that required 14 staples, and wounds to his legs, his attorney said, ABC News reported. Goggin also said Bostian is "very distraught" at the deaths from the derailment.

Bostian, 32, is from Queens, New York, and has worked for Amtrak for almost nine years. ABC News reported he did speak with investigators Tuesday night at the Philadelphia Police Department. But he's since refused to provide a statement and instead, hired an attorney to speak for him.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Mutter issued a sharp rebuke against Bostian in a recent interview with CNN.

"Clearly it was reckless in terms of the driving by the engineer," he said. "There's no way in the world he should have been going that fast into the curve. I don't know what's going on with him. I don't know what was going on in the cab. But there's really no excuse that can be offered, literally, unless he had a heart attack."

National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt criticized Nutter's comments, calling them premature.

"You're not going to hear the NTSB making comments like that," he said, CNN reported. "We want to get the facts before we start making judgments."

Not much is known about Bostian so far. He's a noted "gay"-rights activist who once lived in San Francisco. In a previous interview with the Midtown Gazette, he said: "It's kind of insulting to have to beg people for my right to marry. I feel like we shouldn't even have to have this fight."

And Gay Star News reported Bostian's social media pages include several "likes" for LGBT pages and organizations, and he was an active participant in the battle against Proposition 8, the California referendum defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Sumwalt said his agency plans to discuss the crash with Bostian as soon as possible.

"This person has gone through a very traumatic event and we want to give him the opportunity to convalesce for a day or so before we interview him," he said.

The identities of the eight who died have been released. Among them were Jim Gaines, an Associated Press software architect and the father of two; Justin Zemser, a 20-year-old U.S. Naval Academy midshipman; and Derrick Griffith, the dean of student affairs for City University of New York Medgar Evers College.

The eighth body was pulled from a car Thursday morning.

Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer said he received a telephone call to "bring back our cadaver dog" and shortly after, "we were able to find another passenger in the wreckage, CNN reported.