Train Wreck Engineer Sentenced

A former Conrail engineer who smoked marijuana shortly before causing an Amtrak wreck that killed 16 people and injured more than 170 others was sentenced today to five years in prison on a plea-bargained manslaughter charge.

Ricky Gates, 34, also was fined $1,000 by Circuit Judge Joseph Murphy. Gates pleaded guilty last month to one count of manslaughter in a plea-bargain agreement with prosecutors that combined 16 charges of manslaughter by locomotive into one count. “I would have convicted him if it had come to trial,” the judge said. “The mere fact of consumption does not mean impairment. But what he did was, he just didn’t give a damn. . . . He’s got to be punished for that.”