From: democrats@fail.us

XPost: pa.politics, sac.politics, alt.politics.liberalism
XPost: alt.transportation.trains.driving.high-on-cocaine

PHILADELPHIA — The Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia on
Tuesday night was traveling at a speed of at least 100 miles an
hour or twice the speed limit in that part of the corridor,
according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.

The speed of the train was recorded in the so-called black box
data recorders that were recovered from the wreckage, while
emergency crews searched for more survivors and victims of a
crash that killed at least seven people and injured more than
200.

The recorders were taken to Amtrak’s operations center in
Delaware to download information like the train’s speed, images
from a video camera on the engine and a log of when the train’s
operator used tools like the brake, throttle and horn, officials
said at a news conference.

Passengers who emerged battered and bloodied described a
chaotic, terrifying scene, with people thrown against walls,
furniture and each other, and luggage and other loose items
flying through the air and hitting people.

The accident occurred at a rail yard called Frankford Junction,
northeast of downtown, where multiple freight and passenger
routes converge, and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor makes one of
its sharpest turns, requiring reduced speeds.

Mayor Michael A. Nutter of Philadelphia, at news conference,
would not confirm the reports of the excessive speed.

“It is an absolute disastrous mess,” Mr.Nutter said of the
scene. “Never seen anything like this in my life.”

By midday, the names of the victims began to trickle out. The
United States Naval Academy confirmed that one of its midshipmen
was among the dead, and family members identified him as Justin
Zemser of Rockaway Beach, in Queens, a former student body
president at Channel View High School.

“We’re not ready to talk yet. We are just grieving, and when we
are ready we will be in touch,” said a relative, who did not
want to be identified.

The Associated Press said that one of its employees, Jim Gaines,
48, a video software architect who lived in Plainsboro, N.J.,
was also killed.

Mr. Nutter said that the search of the twisted wreck for more
people, living or dead, was “still in process,” and that some
passengers have not yet been found, but officials were still not
sure how many. “We have not completely matched the manifest that
we received from Amtrak with the patient or hospital records,”
he said.

Some people who congregated at Philadelphia’s 30th Street
Station said they had not been able to locate loved ones.

One of those unaccounted for, co-workers said, was Rachel
Jacobs, chief executive officer of ApprenNet, an education
technology company in Philadelphia. On Twitter, the company
posted a message: “We are still looking for Rachel & hope she
will be with her family soon.”

Philadelphia’s director of emergency management, Samantha
Phillips, said, “Our hospitals treated over 200 patients last
night and this morning.”

The mayor said the engineer of the train “was injured to some
extent” but has spoken to the Philadelphia police about what
happened.

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.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board
began to arrive before 5 a.m., said Robert Sumwalt, a board
member, adding that they may be able to release more information
on Wednesday afternoon. The F.B.I. was also investigating.

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.

Temple University Hospital received 54 patients from the wreck,
including one who died overnight from a massive chest injury,
Herbert E. 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.

About 20 minutes before the crash, on the same line but a few
miles away, “an unknown projectile” struck a SEPTA commuter
train and damaged a window, an authority spokeswoman said. It
was not clear whether the two incidents were related.

Amtrak officials said they were working to set up a family
assistance center at a downtown hotel.

The Amtrak wreck occurred in the Port Richmond section of the
city, in a rail yard called Frankford Junction, where multiple
freight and passenger routes merge. Amtrak service continued
between Philadelphia and Washington on a modified schedule, but
no trains were able to run between Philadelphia and New York.

“The guy next to me was unconscious, so I just kind of picked
him up and slapped him in the face and said ‘Hey buddy, get up,
get up,’ and he came to,” said Patrick J. Murphy, a former
congressman from Pennsylvania, who was on the train.

The engine pulling the train separated from the passenger cars,
left the tracks, rumbled through a dirt area and came to rest
diagonally across other sets of tracks.

After the crash, emergency workers carrying flashlights and
ladders moved frantically from car to car helping passengers off
the train, some bloodied, others dazed. Parts of the damaged
cars were so badly mangled that firefighters had to use
hydraulic tools to rescue people trapped inside.

“Train cars are overturned,” the Philadelphia fire commissioner,
Derrick J. V. Sawyer, said. “They’re in horrible shape. There’s
a bunch of debris down there, sharp objects. It’s a dangerous
situation for responders, even more dangerous for the riders out
there.”

The train had at least seven cars, including the engine, and six
cars overturned. One car struck a steel utility pole, and a
stretch of bent and twisted track could be seen near the
wreckage, indicating the sheer force of the crash.

Amtrak identified the train as Northeast Regional Train 188,
from Washington to New York. Remarkably, most people were able
to walk away from the crash site.

Injured passengers were taken from the scene in ambulances and
on buses to hospitals. Aria Health, which has two hospitals
nearby, said it had received 59 patients, including walk-ins.
Maria Cerceo Slade, a spokeswoman, said most of the patients had
minor injuries.

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.”

Still, the derailment on Tuesday took place in roughly the same
area of track that was the site of one of the nation’s deadliest
rail accidents. On Labor Day in 1943, a 16-car Pennsylvania
Railroad Congressional Limited train carrying military service
members on leave derailed near the same curve, killing 79 people
and injuring 117.

Officials concluded that a hot journal box had burned off and
caused an axle to snap, which sent the train catapulting off the
track.

Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor are allowed to travel at
speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour. But engineers are required
to proceed at reduced speeds in urban and residential areas,
such as where the derailment occurred.

The Northeast Corridor, which runs between Boston and
Washington, is one of the railroad’s busiest and most profitable
lines. But officials have long complained that the agency needs
more subsidies from Congress to improve the railroad’s
deteriorating infrastructure and replace aging equipment.

Amtrak canceled service between New York and Philadelphia, and
modified three other routes. Mr. Nutter said Amtrak service
through Philadelphia would most likely be suspended for the rest
of the week.

“It is completely wiped out down there,” he said.

The derailment prompted a large response from several federal,
state and local agencies. More than 200 police officers and 120
firefighters went to the crash site, as did dozens of officials
from the F.B.I., the Department of Homeland Security and other
agencies.

An Amtrak spokesman said an emergency hotline, 800-523-9101, had
been set up for relatives of anyone who may have been on the
train.

Amtrak employees said that New Jersey Transit would honor Amtrak
tickets to several nearby stations, including Trenton. Other
passengers tried to find alternate routes home on regional bus
services like Megabus and BoltBus.

Correction: May 13, 2015
An earlier version of this article misstated, at one point, the
day on which the train derailment occurred. It was on Tuesday,
not Wednesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/us/amtrak-train-derails-crash-
philadelphia.html?_r=0

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