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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Philadelphia Train Accident; Train Crash News Conference. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 14, 2015 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[12:00:12] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. This is breaking news. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

Any second now the mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, is due to hold another briefing at the site of Tuesday night's Amtrak disaster, a disaster that the mayor has already publicly blamed on the train's engineer. This is who that man is, 32-year-old Brandon Bostian. Investigators are much more circumspect, however. But the question of the hour remain, if northeast train number 188 was speeding, as the NTSB confirmed in short order, what exactly was that engineer, Brandon Bostian, doing?

Right now authorities and Bostian's lawyer don't even seem to agree on whether the engineer is even cooperating with the investigation. Two different sides here. His lawyer says Bostian spoke with the police, in fact for hours, though he has a concussion, and the lawyer says he remembers next to nothing about the actual moment of the crash. But a police official is telling CNN that that engineer, Mr. Bostian, refused to answer their questions once he lawyered up. The lawyer actually says Bostian is, quote, "distraught" over the seven known deaths on that train that he was operating at twice the legal speed. Today, at least eight people are in critical condition, but they are expected to recover.

The newspaper, "The Philadelphia Inquirer," says about a dozen passengers at this point remain unaccounted for. A dozen. And while we wait for the mayor, I want to bring in CNN's Erin McLaughlin.

So, Erin, I just want you to get me up to speed on exactly what's happening. We've been seeing, as we wait for the live news conference, trains are being - or, you know, the cars are being removed from the tracks, et cetera, but how are we at this point with the missing and the investigation in that respect?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ashleigh.

Well, just to give you a sense of where I am, I'm located not far away from that crash site. Just a short while ago we saw the last of the cars visible from this vantage point actually pulled away from the site. The NTSB says they're bringing the cars to a separate, secure location for further analysis.

And we've seen them very much trying to clear this area. They've been laying new track. It appears as though they are trying to get this area back up and running, a very vital northeast transit corridor, although authorities at the moment are saying - not saying, rather, when exactly this corridor will be back up and running.

BANFIELD: And then, of course, what about the -- the discrepancies that we're hearing, Erin, about what officials say this engineer is or isn't doing with regard to cooperation, and what his lawyer is publicly saying. They don't seem to match up.

MCLAUGHLIN: No, and I think we - we're going to have to hear more from authorities on that very point. As you said, we heard from his lawyer earlier today say that he's cooperating, that he was questioned by police for some six hours, despite a head injury. That he offered up a blood sample so that they could conduct toxicology tests, that he wasn't suffering from any sort of medical condition, that he wasn't on any sort of medication that would impede his ability to do his job. He says he also offered up his cell phone so that authorities could take a look at that to see if he was actually on the phone at the time of the crash. He says at the moment though that his client simply does not remember what happened. That he's distraught.

BANFIELD: Erin, I was surprised with "The Philadelphia Inquirer" report, I think at the sheer number of passengers that remain unaccounted for. I expected one or two, but "The Philly Inquirer" says it's a dozen.

MCLAUGHLIN: Yes. And I think, again, we're going to have to wait to hear more from authorities about that. We know that they have had this very active search that has been expanding in the recent days. They've had people out looking for potential passengers, possibly, they say, thrown from the train wreckage itself. They say it's also possible that some of the people unaccounted for could have actually just not simply boarded the train at all. And they're also saying it's possible some people could have walked away from the crash site without notifying authorities. I expect we will be hearing more on that point from Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who's expected to give a press conference this hour.

BANFIELD: Certainly hope so. Erin McLaughlin for us live.

[12:04:52] And again, I want to draw our attention - thank you, Erin - to this picture on the right-hand side of your screen where we are awaiting the next set of details to emerge in this investigation. We should also note, yesterday the mayor did say, along with those other officials who were beside him, please call in if you have any information, if you might have been a passenger, if you know of a passenger. We need to hear from you. They're literally asking for the public's help in trying to identify who may or may not have been on that train. They're also using K-9s out on that track just in case, as they said it, passengers may have been thrown from that train, which is just a horrible thought.

But as they continue that investigation, I want to now dig in deeper about the Amtrak engineer's attorney and what that attorney said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" program. Robert Goggin insisted that his client has told investigators everything that he can, which, by the way, is not very much, and that, he says, is because of his loss of memory. Has a conclusion, the lawyer says, and he also says police don't need search warrants because he says his client, Brandon Bostian, has given his cell phone voluntarily and a blood sample as well. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GOGGIN, ATTORNEY FOR ENGINEER BRANDON BOSTIAN: He remembers coming into the curve. He remembers attempting to reduce speed. Thereafter, he was knocked out, thrown around, just like all the other passengers in that train. Regained consciousness -

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC'S "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": So he remembers deploying the emergency brake?

GOGGIN: He - he does not remember deploying the emergency brake. We know that it was, in fact, deployed. The last thing he recalls is coming to, looking for his bag, getting his cell phone, turning it on and calling 911.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Had your client been drinking at all?

GOGGIN: Nothing. In fact, the police department requested a search warrant for his blood. He consented immediately to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So this brings me to my lawyers right here, HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson and CNN legal analyst Philip Holloway. We're also joined by CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector David Soucie.

David, I need to go to you right off the bat because what that attorney said got me wondering about just how you stop a train from going 106 miles an hour. That lawyer told George Stephanopoulos that the last thing his client remembered was, quote, "trying to reduce the speed." But then when pressed by George Stephanopoulos he said he doesn't remember hitting the emergency brake. So, with your knowledge of investigating this kind of an accident, how would an engineer possibly try to reduce speed before say perhaps hitting an emergency brake?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, the only thing he could do is reduce the throttle, pull the throttles back, which is recorded on the train event recorder. And that - they will know that, whether, in fact, he did reduce the throttles or whether - when the throttles were put forward, when the throttles were put back. So they'll have a direct reading on to when he actually reduced power versus when he pulled the emergency brake.

BANFIELD: So, David, if he did that, if he tried to reduce the speed by pulling the throttle back, and nothing happened, and thus he might have been then hit the emergency brake, would the black box tell you that nothing happened when the engineer physically tried to bring the throttle back? SOUCIE: You could because it's keeping track of the time, the speed,

and the distance at all three together. So you can calculate then that if the throttle's reduced, you would expect it to reduce at a certain rate. And if that rate didn't occur, in other words, if the throttles are recorded as being pulled back and the train did not slow or did not - or did not quit increasing in speed, a little bit difference there in terms but, nonetheless, if it didn't continue to increase, then you would know the throttles had been pulled back. There's a lot of inertia here, so things don't happen quickly when you pull the throttles back. Nonetheless, there is a change and it would be recorded.

BANFIELD: All right. Let me bring in Philip Holloway here.

I think there is such a significant amount of information that this lawyer did and did not tell George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America." The selective memories. This attorney said there are certain things that this - this engineer remembers, leading right up to the moment of trying to reduce the speed, and then zero, a big blank, until he somewhat came to and was able to dig through his bag for his cell phone to call 911. What do you make of that?

PHILIP HOLLOWAY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, any time a lawyer goes out on a limb like this, and I know, Joey, this is going to be a surprise to you, sometimes clients don't necessarily tell their lawyers the entire truth. I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but a lawyer who goes out on a limb and gives detailed information like this is out on a limb. And if that limb breaks, watch out, that lawyer has no credibility and neither does his client because we don't know what the blood test will reveal, we don't know what the cell phones records will reveal.

Even if the lawyer is telling the truth, even if the attorney - excuse me, the client has told him the truth, the speed alone is enough to make this a criminal investigation and the speed alone is enough to get this person charged with some form of criminal homicide in my opinion, and who knows what related to the injuries, to the multitude of other people who were harmed.

[12:10:02] BANFIELD: So, Joey, that point, this is a very critical, few moments, and we're really talking about a few moments of memory loss. The moment after you try to reduce the speed, if the lawyer is telling the exact story and isn't, say, messing up with syntax live on television.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure.

BANFIELD: And then the moment directly after the crash where suddenly, memory's right back.

JACKSON: Yes, but -

BANFIELD: That is a few seconds only.

JACKSON: It is, but understand, Ashleigh, of course, they're not going to base the case, that is any type of prosecution, should there be there one, and I'll address Phil's speeding point momentarily, based upon his memory or based upon what he tells them. They never will rely upon the defendant, if he becomes a defendant. They're going to rely upon the circumstances of the investigation.

Now to Phil's point, certainly speeding in and of itself could constitute a crime, but we're a long way's from that and here's why I say that. There's a number of other factors to be considered here. We know, we believe we know, that it was going 106 miles an hour. How did it get there? Was there mechanical failure? Did something on the track, you know, whatever it may have been, lead to this? Was there some other outside source, Ashleigh, that we're not aware of that relates to the mechanics of this that caused the speed to elevate to that degree? What did he do, if anything, to stop it? Was he aware? What is his background? What's his training? What's his history? And so there's a lot of different elements that we have to factor into this, not only the speed.

BANFIELD: I'm going to get back to this in a moment, but I need to break in with some news here and it is very sad news. This comes to us about a man named Bob Gildersleeve (ph). Apparently Mr. Gildersleeve has been missing since the Amtrak derailment. And the uncle of Bob Gildersleeve has been called. He's telling CNN that he has been at the crash site, in fact, just this morning, and that investigators found another body. And this Uncle Ken Vino (ph) is on his way to the morgue. I'm just getting more information as I say this to you.

We're also being told now that officially the death toll is at eight, and that the eighth person apparently died at the hospital. And there's a couple of pieces of information that we need to connect here, but we can't, and that is whether in fact Bob Gildersleeve is the eighth victim, or not, but we can tell you that his uncle, Ken Vino, has been called, has been to the crash site, was there apparently when investigators found another body and that Mr. Vino is on the way to the morgue, and I am assuming that that is possibly for an identification.

Also watching that right-hand side of your screen where the mayor was due to hold a live update and briefing for us at the top of the hour. We're 12 minutes late for that. But we are going to continue to watch that. And I think we'll probably try to get that on to you within the next few minutes if I look at 36 hours has been a lot to go on with a pattern here, but the news conferences start about 10 to 15 minutes late each time that they have called them.

Let me see if I can fit in another break here or if I can continue with those questions I was asking before. All right, I'm going to squeeze in a quick break, if I can. We've got a lot of moving parts and I want to make sure we don't miss anything. We're back right after this, hopefully with a live news conference. And, if not, certainly about some questions of the level of training and experience that this engineer had, and what just might surprise you about all of the engineers out there. What does it require? How much training? How much experience? You might be surprised.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:14:55] BANFIELD: I want to get right to Philadelphia where the mayor, Michael Nutter, is about to give another live update. Let's listen.

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER (D), PHILADELPHIA: Everybody ready? OK.

Thank you all for being here.

And we have a series of announcements to make this morning. But first, let me acknowledge the tremendous partnership, relationship, collaboration, and coordination among probably now 10 to 12 different city, state, and federal agencies that have worked with us in a seamless effort to save lives, notify families, work with those families, for some in their darkest moment, do our best to treat all of them with the dignity and respect that they deserve, while also working with those who were injured, some who at times, on our side, may have been unaccounted for, and ultimately seek to bring a sense of healing and closure to this incredible tragedy that's taken place in our great city, while at the same time acknowledging the near miracle of survival that we experienced with over 200 people here in our city, traveling, mostly from Washington, D.C., to New York City, and while passing through the city of Philadelphia, a great tragedy and trauma place.

Let me again thank and recognize, for the third day in a row, our governor, Governor Tom Wolf, who has been with us, and his team with us, each and every step along the way.

We've had Amtrak Board Chairman Coscia with us. And now, of course, today, for the second day, the CEO of Amtrak, Mr. Joe Boardman. The Federal Railroad Administration, represented by Acting Administrator Sarah Feinberg. The NTSB, the great investigatory organization renowned across the United States of America, if not around the world, for the quality of their work and their board member, Robert Sumwalt, and the vice chair of the NTSB, Vice Chairwoman Dinh-Zarr. The Philadelphia Fire Department, under the great leadership of Commissioner Derrick Sawyer. Philadelphia Police Department, under the incredible leadership of Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. Deputy mayor for public safety, Everett Gillison. Deputy mayor for administration and coordination and the managing director, Rich Negrin. Our city representative and director of communications, Desiree Peterkin Bell. And the nationally recognized, the director of emergency management, Sam Phillips, and our director of public safety, Mike Resnick.

This team, city, state, and federal partners, working in collaboration and coordination, made what could have been an even greater tragedy a life-saving miracle here in our city. And so I want to thank all of them and express appreciation for their work, their cooperation and their support.

[12:19:42] State Senator Tina Tartaglione is with us today, but has consistently expressed her concern for the families. City councilman Bobby Henon, whose district we stand, communicated with on a regular basis. Councilman Neilson was here the other day and our city council president. We had numerous members of Congress. Our two U.S. senators, Casey and

Toomey, Congressman Bob Brady, and Brendan Boyle. And visitors from outside of Philadelphia or Pennsylvania, members of Congress, from both parties, to see, not only the tragedy, but to inform their work in the Congress for issues of safety and infrastructure support with regard to Amtrak.

This has been a massive effort. It's been painful. As we've already reported, there were seven deceased individuals confirmed. I'm going to ask the Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer to give an update from work of the fire department and the police department this morning at the site.

Commissioner Sawyer.

DERRICK SAWYER, PHILADELPHIA FIRE COMMISSIONER: Good afternoon.

This morning, around 08:00 this morning, we receive a call to bring back our dog, our cadaver dog. So we worked in conjunction with a dog from PA task force and the police department to go out and do another search of that first car that was -- had a large amount of wreckage. The dog hit on a couple of spots, and we were able to find one other passenger in the wreckage. We utilize our hydraulic tools to open up the train a little bit more so that we can reach the person, and we were able to extricate that person and have them transported to the medical examiner's office.

Once again, this was a great coordinated effort. The members of our department, the men and women of our department did a great job throughout this whole event. We continue to have an engine and a medic unit on scene just to make sure that everything is done safely as we finish this investigation and going through the wreckage. Once again, the great partnership with the police department, fire department, EMS units, of getting this last person out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) just clarifying -

NUTTER: Thank you. We're - we're not done. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry about that.

NUTTER: Thank you, commissioner.

Governor Wolf.

GOV. TOM WOLF, PENNSYLVANIA: Thank you. -

NUTTER: We'll - we'll let you know.

WOLF: I want to - this was such a tragic occurrence and I am so sorry. On behalf of everyone in Pennsylvania, I want to express my condolences and sympathy to the families, certainly to the victims. But I also want to say that, as a Pennsylvanian, I am so proud of the way this was handled by the folks here in Philadelphia. As the mayor says, the commissioner said, this is an example of cooperation, collaboration. We have worked together to work through this tragedy, and I can't say enough about the he heroism of the first responders who came to this site right after the accident, risked their lives to save as many people as they possibly could. So as a Pennsylvanian, I just to want express my pride and my thanks to the mayor -

NUTTER: Thank you.

WOLF: And his team for doing such a tremendous job. Such a terrible, terrible tragedy. So. mayor, thank you very much.

NUTTER: Thanks, governor. Thank you.

Mr. Boardman.

JOSEPH BOARDMAN, CEO, AMTRAK: Thank you.

Thank you, mayor, governor, senator.

What a team Philadelphia has with us at Amtrak. Amtrak's heartbroken for what happened here. The men and women of Amtrak accept their responsibilities seriously. We know that we have a team here that worked together to help us, to help the families, to be sensitive, to understand what needed to be done, and we've done that.

Twenty-eight years ago was the last time there was a derailment on the northeast corridor. Twenty-eight years. And 300 million people have ridden Amtrak since then. No derailment, no loss of life. Today, we're committing to - I'm committing to meeting the requirement of Positive Train Control. That will happen on the northeast corridor by the end of this year.

[14:25:03] Mayor, governor, team, thank you on behalf of Amtrak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you identify yourself, please.

BOARDMAN: Yes. Joe Boardman, CEO of Amtrak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you spell Boardman?

BOARDMAN: B-o-a-r-d-m-a-n.

NUTTER: Chief Sullivan.

CHIEF INSPECTOR JOE SULLIVAN, PHILADELPHIA POLICE: Yes, sir. Good morning. Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan with the Philadelphia Police Homeland Security Counterterrorism.

I'd just like to say that I've been a police officer for 32 years, and this was a catastrophic event. My deepest sympathy for those that were lost and seriously injured. I'm very proud of the response by the Philadelphia Police Department at night. It was a cataclysmic emergency, but the actions of the Philadelphia Police that night, what I observed when I - when I arrived shortly after the incident, and the matter in which the Philadelphia Police were - joined together with the Philadelphia Fire Department and worked as a team to rescue the injured in a miraculously short period of time, I can tell you that I'm extremely proud of. I'm very grateful to our office of emergency management for the support that they have given both of our departments.

I am also very grateful to Amtrak, specifically the Amtrak Police. They arrived on location and integrated together with us immediately, which has allowed us to bring us to bring this matter to the conclusion that we now have. And we'll continue to work together cooperatively until everything is returned back to normal.

The Philadelphia Police Department has an ongoing, active investigation, criminal investigation, into this matter. And we will continue to work together with Amtrak and the district attorney's office here in Philadelphia.

Thank you.

NUTTER: Thank you, chief.

Sam Phillips.

SAMANTHA PHILLIPS, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Good afternoon. Sam Phillips. I'm the director of emergency management for Philadelphia.

And I just to want summarize a lot of things that you've heard here this afternoon. This does not just come together. The way we respond to these things is really the product of years of planning, coordination, training, and exercising. We have tremendous relationships in public safety, but also across the board, you know, we rely heavily on our utilities when events like this happen. We partner with the public works agencies, all of the lighting that you see out here, all of the things that you don't think about that are outside of police and fire, all have to come together. And that's really a testament to this city.

We will continue to have a presence here and support Amtrak. We're also supporting the families that experienced this tragedy at the family assistance center, and we're going to do that until we're told that we're no longer need. And we're here for the long haul with this one.

And then, finally, we can always learn from these. And so it's our responsibility as a city and as an office of emergency management to make sure that what went really smoothly this time continues to go smoothly next time. And that any kind of glitches we experience, we fix for the next one.

Thank you.

NUTTER: Thank you to all the - to all the speakers.

Let me give you one additional piece of information.

Fire Commissioner Sawyer explained to you this morning that we did recover the remains of one individual this morning. Those remains were taken to the medical examiner's office, as is our protocol. The remains have been identified as a person who was on that train. And so, if I can take you back to just two days ago, at the time, we believe, based on all information available at that time, that there were approximately 243 individuals on Amtrak Train Number 188. With the recovery and the identification this morning, as this news conference was taking place, I just received that final confirmation.

[12:29:21] We believe that we have now accounted for all 243 individuals on - that we believe were on Amtrak Train Number 188 from Tuesday night. All of the individuals that we believe that we were looking for or were trying to identify have all now been accounted for. Unfortunately, again, we must now report that we have confirmed eight deceased from this horrible tragedy.