As it entered that dangerous curve, weve actually learned now it sped up from 70 miles an hour to more than 100 miles an hour. It happened in just more than a minute. Bostian isnt saying much right now, as we mentioned, but his friends, his colleagues are speaking out on his behalf saying he never would have been deliberately reckless. It was a claim made by philadelphias mayor in the hours after that Train Derailment. Well hear from one of those friends in just a minute. First, lets go straight to the scene to my colleague, cnns erin mclaughlin, for more on the investigation today. There was some back and forth, but now this engineer he has agreed to talk to investigators, yes . Reporter yeah thats right, brooke. Ntsb investigators say when they do meet with 32yearold Brandon Bostian, theyre going to hand him a blank piece of paper and a pen and ask him to paint a picture of everything he remembers from that tragic night. His testimony really being seen as crucial in all of this. A ke
throttle by actually physically opening it through some motion you could speed up the train. it would take some type of probably conscious movement to do so. especially with this type of throttle. but in general, i m not familiar with the type of throttle on that particular locomotive how easy it is to move. but in general, it would not be easy. there s also been talk of like a dead man switch. can you explain that to me? ma am? hello? barrett, it s brooke. you re on tv. do you hear me? can you give me a thumbs up? okay. we lost him. we re going to work on that. technology happens on live tv. we ll move on. we ll get him again. barrett hayes there in duluth georgia. the engineer s lawyer here says his client doesn t remember the crash. what about amnesia? is that a viable defense? we ll talk to a lawyer about
the question was, is this acceleration a deliberate move? could this have happened by accident? let s go to the southeastern railroad museum where locomotive engineer barrett hayes is sitting there in the cab of this train. barrett, thank you so much for coming on with me first of all. yes, ma am. my pleasure. i think our viewers can figure this out quickly. you re sitting in a very different train than that train that derailed in philadelphia. in terms of the fundamentals of the role of an engineer they have to be pretty similar to where you are. can you just walk me through the basics of the controls and just show me around a little bit. sure. so right here is the throttle. this will one has eight notches on it. that controls your acceleration and speed. this is the reverser. this controls forward and reverse movement. forward is up here neutral is here this is reverse. this is the independent brake. this controls only the brakes on