N.Y. Had Barred Train Engineer in Boston Crash

The senior engineer aboard an Amtrak train that smashed into a commuter train, injuring 264 people, had been banned from operating trains in suburban New York because of signal violations, authorities said Friday.

Willis Copeland, 53, of Bethany, Conn., was supervising an apprentice engineer at the controls of the Night Owl from Washington that derailed and crashed as it approached a Boston station during morning rush hour Wednesday.

Copeland agreed on March 27 to a lifetime ban from Metro-North Railroad, the commuter railroad that serves New York’s northern suburbs, following signal violations in 1988 and in March, a Metro-North spokeswoman said.

He also was at the controls of an Amtrak train involved in a July, 1984, crash that was blamed on a signal problem. The National Transportation Safety Board cleared him of wrongdoing.

Apprentice engineer Richard Abramson, 41, of Trumbull, Conn., and Copeland were among eight people still hospitalized Friday. Copeland was in stable condition after undergoing surgery for multiple injuries, and Abramson was in good condition with a broken collarbone.

Newspapers reported Friday that Copeland had been involved in several accidents, but Amtrak said it could not confirm any alleged incidents because of company policy. The Boston Herald reported that Copeland was fired from Conrail after a derailment in the late 1970s but was later rehired.

None of the signal violations while he worked for Metro-North resulted in an accident.

Federal safety officials said Friday that although Abramson reported that brake failure caused the train to derail underground near the Back Bay Station, the investigation into the cause of the crash is not complete.