"After I passed North Philadelphia, my memory isn't completely clear."
Brandon Bostian
The National Transportation Safety Board released evidence on Monday gathered in its investigation of the crash that killed eight people and injured 200 others last May.
Among the documents were transcripts of two interviews investigators had with the engineer, Brandon Bostian. The investigators weren't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A federal accident investigator said the engineer at the controls of Amtrak train no. 188 when it fatally derailed in Philadelphia has been "extremely cooperative."
The NTSB has released more than two thousand documents that include black box data and transcripts of interviews with Bostian, as well as other crew members.
Investigators had said previously that Bostian hit his head in the crash and didn't recall what happened.
In the documents released Monday, Bostian said, "After I passed North Philadelphia, my memory isn't completely clear. There' s several gaps in my memory as I approached the accident curve. And I couldn' t say with certainty that my memory is accurate."
Bostian acknowledged that he had "gaps in his memory" as he approached the accident curve, but does recall having significant speed changes as he approached and came out of the curve. "I have a memory that I backed off the throttle by mistake because I was targeting seventy miles an hour instead of 80 miles an hour." he said.
Mary Lou Cooke is an intern at WNPR. This report includes information from The Associated Press.