The engineer of the 2015 Amtrak crash in Frankford rejected a plea offer Thursday that could have spared him the possibility of spending years behind bars.<\/p>\n
Instead, Brandon Bostian told a Philadelphia judge that he wanted a jury to decide if he was guilty of charges including causing a catastrophe, eight counts of involuntary manslaughter, and more than 200 counts of reckless endangerment.<\/p>\n
The decision by Bostian, 38, marked the beginning of his trial<\/a> over the fatal wreck, which left eight people dead and more than 200 injured. After Bostian rejected the offer, Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott moved forward with jury selection, a process expected to last most of the day Thursday.<\/p>\n Prosecutors have accused Bositan of causing the fatal derailment nearly seven years ago. He accelerated Train 188 to 106 mph \u2014 twice the speed limit \u2014 before a curve, an action the Attorney General\u2019s Office contends was criminally reckless.<\/p>\n But Bostian\u2019s lawyers have argued that the crash was a tragic mistake, calling Bostian an otherwise conscientious engineer who became disoriented while listening to radio chatter about rocks being thrown at nearby trains.<\/p>\n McDermott told Bostian Thursday that he\u2019d been offered the opportunity to enter a \u201cno contest\u201d plea to nine counts of reckless endangerment, a close equivalent to pleading guilty. In return, McDermott said, prosecutors would have dropped all other charges, including the lead charge of causing a catastrophe, a felony.<\/p>\n She did not say if the plea came with a recommended sentence, but told Bostian that by rejecting it he was exposing himself to the potential of \u201cmore than a lifetime of incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n Bostian, without elaborating, said he\u2019d considered the offer and decided against it.<\/p>\n His case has wound a twisted path through the criminal justice system \u2014 largely due to the question of whether his conduct amounted to a crime.<\/p>\n