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(CNN)How do all seven cars and the engine of an Amtrak train
jump the rails, sending passengers, luggage, laptops and more
flying?

One possibility jumped ahead of all others Wednesday: speed.

Authorities haven't said, definitively, what caused the
derailment of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 in
Philadelphia on Tuesday night. But the National Transportation
Safety Board said that preliminary data show the train's speed
exceeded 100 mph before the derailment. That would be more than
twice the 50 mph speed limit for the curve it was in.

An official with direct knowledge of the investigation earlier
said that authorities were focusing on speed as a possible
cause, given the angles of the wreckage and type of damage to
the cars. The recorder, or "black box," discovered at the scene
could be pivotal by showing just that, former NTSB official John
Goglia said.

Peter Goelz, once a top NTSB figure and now a CNN analyst,
predicted that a definitive conclusion could come soon.

"I'm afraid that this train might be going too fast for this
turn," he said.

Investigators looking at speed as factor

NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt has said only that his team
will examine things such as the condition of the track and the
train, how the signals operated and "human performance."

Even if it's determined the train was going too fast, that could
be due to the engineer or a mechanical issue, such as faulty
brakes.

"You have a lot of questions, we have a lot of questions,"
Sumwalt told reporters. "We intend to answer many of those
questions in the next 24 to 48 hours."

Midshipman, AP staffer among the 7 dead
Whatever the cause, it doesn't change the suffering that many
experienced Wednesday -- be they survivors dealing with physical
and emotional trauma, or relatives of the seven people killed
after a few frenetic, horrific moments. Some 238 passengers and
five crew members were on the train when it crashed around 9:30
p.m. Tuesday.

One of those who didn't make it was Jim Gaines, a father of two
who worked as a video software architect for The Associated
Press, his company said.

His family asked for privacy, saying: "Jim was more precious to
us than we can adequately express."

Another was a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman in full uniform
heading home to New York on leave from the Annapolis, Maryland,
school. A family member described 20-year-old Justin Zemser as a
great person and genius whose death has left his parents "beside
themselves."

Hospitals have treated more than 200 others, at least half of
whom have been released. That figure included eight in critical
condition among the 23 wounded passengers at Temple University
Hospital -- the closest trauma center to the crash site --
according to Herb Cushing, the hospital's medical director. The
number of patients there was down from 25 earlier.

"Most patients' conditions are either stable or better so that's
very very good news," Cushing said.

He said many passengers were injured when other passengers or
objects fell on them. One of those hurt is the train's engineer,
who received medical treatment and was interviewed by police,
Mayor Michael Nutter said.

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility of more victims
at the crash site.

"We are heartbroken by what we've experienced here," Nutter said
Wednesday morning. "We have not experienced anything like this
in modern times."

Amtrak train crash victims tell their stories

'A lot of questions'
The miracle may be how some escaped relatively unscathed, given
the severity of the derailment. A U.S. Department of
Transportation representative told CNN that the engine and two
cars were left standing upright, three cars were tipped on their
sides, and one was nearly flipped over on its roof. The seventh
one was "leaning hard."

"It is amazing," Nutter said. "I saw some people last night
literally walking off that train. I don't know how they did it."

The Washington-New York corridor is the busiest stretch for
Amtrak nationwide. Hundreds of trains, carrying thousands of
passengers, have made that trip in recent years, most of them
rolling seamlessly from start to finish on a roughly 3½-hour
journey.

That's what seemed to be happening Tuesday night, passenger
Daniel Wetrin said.

"Everything was normal," he said. "Then it was just chaos."

Jeremy Wladis was in the very last car, eating, when he noticed
the train starting to do "funny things. And it gradually starts
getting worse and worse."

Things started flying -- phones, laptops. "Then people."

"There were two people in the luggage rack above my head. Two
women, catapulted (there)."

As she read a book in the second-to-last car, Janna D'Ambrisi
said, she "felt like we were going a little too fast around a
curve. The car she was in started to tip, and she was thrown
onto another woman.

"People started to fall on us," she said. "I just held on to her
leg and sort of bowed my head and I was kind of praying, 'Please
make it stop.' "

Fortunately, D'Ambrisi's train car didn't tip over and she made
it out safely. She credited many people -- including one fellow
passenger who guided people with his shoes off -- for stepping
up.

"Everyone was just trying to help the people who were injured,
who had blood coming out of their head, their noses, to help
them sit down in the dirt away from the rails," she said.

'Heavily used stretch of track'
The locomotive was built by Siemens and delivered to Amtrak in
2014 specifically for its Northeast Corridor service, a Siemens
official said. That makes it fairly new, which doesn't rule out
the train's condition playing a role in the crash but seemingly
makes it less likely.

One factor that can't be discounted is where the crash happened.

"It's an extremely heavily used stretch of track,"
transportation analyst Matthew L. Wald said of the area. "They
have trouble keeping it in a state of good repair."

The derailment was Amtrak's ninth this year, according to the
Federal Railroad Administration, and while its cause has not yet
been determined, some, like Wald, are already discussing the
nation's aging rail infrastructure.

Noting President Barack Obama's commitment to upgrading the
country's infrastructure, White House press secretary Josh
Earnest said the Obama administration is "hard at work" trying
to figure out what caused the crash, and that their thoughts and
prayers are with the families of everyone affected.

"Along the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak is a way of life for
many," the President said later in a statement. "From
Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to New York City and Boston,
this is a tragedy that touches us all."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/13/us/philadelphia-amtrak-train-
derailment/

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