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CRIME

No charges against Metro-North engineer who nodded off, causing deadly NYC derailment

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2013, file photo, Metro North Railroad engineer William Rockefeller is wheeled on a stretcher away from the area where the commuter train he was operating derailed in the Bronx borough of New York. Prosecutors said on Thursday, May 14, 2015, that Rockefeller, who fell asleep at the controls of a commuter train that derailed and killed four people, will not face criminal charges. (AP Photo/Robert Stolarik, File) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2013, file photo, rescue personnel remove the body of a victim from the site of a commuter train derailment in the Bronx borough of New York. On Thursday, May 14, 2015, prosecutors said the engineer who fell asleep at the controls of the train, killing four people, will not face criminal charges. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2013, file photo, a police officer stands guard at the scene of a commuter train derailment in the Bronx borough of New York. Prosecutors said on Thursday, May 14, 2015, that Metro North Railroad engineer William Rockefeller, who fell asleep at the controls of the commuter train that derailed and killed four people, will not face criminal charges. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) (The Associated Press)

NEW YORK – Prosecutors say the engineer who fell asleep at the controls of a commuter train that derailed in New York City in 2013, killing four people, won't face criminal charges.

A spokeswoman said Thursday that Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson found no criminality in the December 2013 Metro-North Railroad derailment.

The National Transportation Safety Board says engineer William Rockefeller fell asleep at the controls because of undiagnosed sleep apnea combined with a drastic shift in his work schedule. It says that caused him to take a 30 mph curve at 82 mph.

Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine why an Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday, killing eight people, was careening through the city at 106 mph before it ran off the rails.