Plan B Forum

Amtrak Train Derails in Philadelphia, Killing at Least 6 and Injuring Dozens

PHILADELPHIA — Emergency crews picked through the wreckage of a derailed Amtrak train Wednesday, looking for survivors and victims of a crash that killed at least six people and left dozens injured, as the National Transportation Safety Board and F.B.I. dispatched investigators to the scene.

The New York-bound train jumped the tracks at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, tossing around the 238 passengers and five crew members, as most of the train’s passenger cars tumbled onto their sides and crumpled. One car was particularly badly mangled, looking like nothing so much as a crushed and torn soda can.

On Wednesday, a giant crane moved into position and began attempting to lift the damaged cars. The wreck severed Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, one of the nation’s busiest rail routes, and the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s commuter train line from Philadelphia to Trenton, stranding thousands of passengers and threatening to snarl travel for days or weeks to come.

Not everyone on board had been accounted for, said Michael A. Nutter, the mayor of Philadelphia, and some people who congregated at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station said they had not been able to locate loved ones, raising the prospect of a rising toll as the search continued.

“We need to match up the manifest with all the individuals who walked off,” Mr. Nutter said.

“It is an absolute disastrous mess,” he said. “Never seen anything like this in my life.”

Temple University Hospital received 54 patients from the wreck, including one who died overnight from a massive chest injury, Herbert Cushing, the chief medical officer, said Wednesday morning. He said that most of the patients suffered fractures from being thrown around the train, and that 25 remained in the hospital, including eight people in critical condition.

“There were lots of people from all around the world” among the injured, he said, including patients from Albania, India and Spain.

As officials worked to notify passengers’ family members about their relatives, Mr. Nutter said most of them were not from the Philadelphia area, with more hailing from Washington, New York and New Jersey.

The Amtrak wreck occurred in the Port Richmond section of the city, northeast of the 30th Street Station. Amtrak service continued between Philadelphia and Washington on a modified schedule, but no trains were able to run between Philadelphia and New York.

The cause of the crash was not known. It occurred close to Frankford Avenue and Wheatsheaf Lane, near a bend in the track. Mr. Nutter said it was too early to tell whether it had played a role in the crash or if there were other factors.

“We have no idea what kind of speed there we’re talking about,” Mr. Nutter said, or “what else happened out there.”

He added, “And I’m not going to speculate on that.”

dis·as·trous

The Amtrak passenger train that derailed, killing seven in Philadelphia, exceeded 100 mph on a stretch of tracks in Port Richmond with a speed limit of 50 mph before it jumped the tracks on a sharp curve, the National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed, citing preliminary data.

Further calibrations of the data are being conducted, the agency said Wednesday afternoon

That was double the 50-mph speed limit on that stretch of track, according to the report. An agency official declined to comment.

Robert Sumwalt, a NTSB board member, said speed was just one factor investigators would consider, and that the black box, also known as an events recorder, would help determine whether excessive speed played a role in the derailment.

Rescue workers were searching through the wreckage in Port Richmond and investigators looked for a cause for the derailment that injured more than 200.

Meanwhile, police officials say the Amtrak engineer, whose name has not been released, has declined to give police investigators a statement and left the East Detectives Division with an attorney.

The conductor, whose name also has not been released, is being treated at Einstein Memorial Center for a skull fracture.

Guinevere wrote:The ride from East to West B'more (or vice versa), with Penn Station in the middle, is equally slow. But you probably haven't ridden that piece as much.

Guinevere wrote:Do you know, does Amtrak have any kind of limits to its liability, similar to the airlines? And what about sovereign immunity, or is it more like a quasi-governmental agency? Does the FTCA apply?

Lord Jim wrote:Maybe, but that seems really unlikely to me given the amount of trips that take place along that stretch of track day-in-and-day-out...You'd think somebody would have said something...

Plus if that were the cause, this would pretty much have to be the engineer's very first trip through that area, for him not to know that 100 MPH was completely inappropriate, no matter what the speed markers said...

And then of course there's the fact that the engineer felt the need to lawyer up before he said one word about what happened...(if it was a marking or mechanical issue, that would hardly seem necessary...)