NATION IN BRIEF : MARYLAND : Engineer in Rail Crash Asks Leniency
The railroad engineer blamed for the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak history--16 dead, at least 175 injured--is seeking a reduction in his five-year sentence for manslaughter. Lawyers for Ricky Gates, the Conrail engineer who smoked marijuana shortly before his string of three locomotives strayed into the path of a speeding passenger train near Baltimore on Jan. 4., 1987, asked a Baltimore County circuit judge to reduce his time because of good behavior and to allow him to begin serving concurrently a three-year federal sentence for lying to investigators.
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