The New York-bound Amtrak train that crashed as it left Philadelphia may have been traveling well over its 50 mile per hour speed limit on that stretch of track, perhaps going more than 100 miles per hour. That's causing pundits to cast blame on the train's engineer, who has been identified as Brandon Bostian, 32, of Queens. Bostian, NBC Bay Area has confirmed, was previously a worker at Caltrain. Or more precisely, he worked for Caltrain when that agency contracted with Amtrak. As SFGate notes, he lived in Mission Terrace.

Bostian has not given a formal statement to investigators, but he has reportedly hired a lawyer.

An aside: Some wing-nut conservative journalists are pointing out that Bostian is gay. The generally reviled site GotNews, which I won't even link to here, outed Bostian, also confirming his previous positions via his LinkedIn. And more explicitly, American Family Association governmental affairs director Sandy Rios speculated that he could have been "going through some confusion" that caused the accident, as Right Wing Watch reports.

Bostion sustained multiple injuries in the derailment, and was reportedly devastated when he learned of the extent of the disaster.

Previously: Amtrak Train Possibly Going Over 100 MPH When It Crashed