Amtrak Train Was Going 100 MPH Just Before It Derailed: NTSB
Amtrak train 188 was traveling more than 100 mph just before it derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, killing eight people and sending more than 200 to hospitals, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed, providing what could be an early clue into a possible cause for the deadly crash.
In a message posted to Twitter, the NTSB confirmed that its preliminary data shows the train was traveling at that speed. "Further calibrations are being conducted," the tweet said.
An analysis by the Associated Press of video shot just before Amtrak crash, meanwhile, indicated the train was going about 107 mph as it neared the curve.
Emergency personnel help a passenger at the scene of a train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia. An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed and crashed in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)
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Authorities inspect the derailed train cars on May 12, 2015.
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Amtrak's Northeast Corridor trains resumed service on Monday, May 18, 2015. Here, an Amtrak train travels northbound from 30th Street Station, May 18, 2015 in Philadelphia.
NTSB Board Member Robert Sumwalt said that a forward-facing camera in the engine's cab showed that the train increased from 70mph to over 100 before it derailed and crashed, killing eight.
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This undated photo posted on the Twitter account of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Friday, May 15, 2015, shows the event recorder from Amtrak locomotive involved in Tuesday's deadly crash in Philadelphia. The NTSB is investigating why the train accelerated to more than twice the allowed speed in the last minute before it derailed.
Surrounded by friends and family, Susan Zemser, center, and Howard Zemser, the parents of U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman Justin Zemser, prepare to speak to the media outside their home in New York, May 13, 2015. Zemser, 20, who was on leave and heading home to Rockaway Beach, N.Y., was killed in the derailment.
NTSB Recorder Specialist Cassandra Johnson works with officials on the scene of the Amtrak Train #188 Derailment in Philadelphia, PA on May 13, 2015.
A flat bed truck hauls a section of new railroad track to the site of Tuesday's deadly train derailment, May 14, 2015, in Philadelphia.
NTSB member Robert Sumwalt speaks at a news conference near the scene of a deadly Amtrak train wreck, May 13, 2015, in Philadelphia. Sumwalt said Wednesday that the train was traveling at 106 mph when the engineer hit the brakes Tuesday night.
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Investigators and first responders work near the wreckage of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188, from Washington to New York, that derailed May 13, 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Passenger Jeffrey Kutler, 62, from Brooklyn, N.Y., talks with reporters, May 13, 2015, in Philadelphia, about the deadly derailment of the train he was on.
Passengers wait in the Amtrak customer service line at Union Station in Washington, May 13, 2015. The northeast corridor experienced major delays in the wake of the derailment in Philadelphia.
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President Barack Obama said the derailment of Amtrak Train 188 "is a tragedy that touches us all." In a statement, Obama said he is offering prayers to the families who lost loved ones and the passengers beginning to recover.
A departure board at Union Station shows trains traveling to New York as canceled, May 13, 2015, in Washington.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter hugs Lori Dee Patterson, a local resident, after he spoke at a news conference near the scene of a deadly train derailment, May 13, 2015, in Philadelphia.
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Mike Flanigon of the NTSB briefs Vice Chairman Dinh-Zarr on the scene of the Amtrak Train #188 Derailment in Philadelphia, PA, May 13, 2015.
NTSB's Mike Flanigon briefs Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter on the scene of the Amtrak Train #188 Derailment in Philadelphia, PA, May 13, 2015.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Investigators and first responders work near the wreckage of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188, from Washington to New York, that derailed May 13, 2015 in north Philadelphia.
Emergency personnel help a passenger at the scene of a train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia. An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed and crashed in Philadelphia.
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Emergency personnel work the scene of a deadly train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia.
Emergency personnel help a passenger at the scene of a train wreck, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia.
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Emergency personnel work the scene of a train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia.
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Emergency personnel work the scene of a train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia.
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A crime scene investigator looks inside a train car after a train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia.
The train, bound for New York from Washington, left the tracks at a curve where the speed limit drops from 80 mph to 50.
The new details on the train's speed emerged as National Transportation Safety Board investigators turned Wednesday to the train's event data recorder, also known as its "black box," as an early clue as to what caused the crash.
It's still unclear what caused the train to derail. There is no evidence indicating the crash was anything other than an accident, authorities say.
The train's engineer has already met with investigators, while its conductor, whose skull was fractured in the crash, was undergoing surgery Wednesday at Albert Einstein Medical Center, police said.
The stretch of tracks in the northeastern suburban Port Richmond neighborhood where the train derailed isn't equipped with positive train control, or PTC — the GPS technology designed to slow or stop a train and avoid over-speed derailments and other accidents.
Major rail lines are required by a 2008 law to install that technology by the end of this year, and is already installed on several stretches of the Northeast Corridor line on which Amtrak train 188 derailed — one in Maryland, one in New Jersey and one between New Haven, Connecticut, and Boston.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the latest derailment could show the importance of spreading that technology.
"There are strong indications that the train was traveling far too fast - some reports say as rapidly as 100 m.p.h. in a 50 m.p.h. zone. If substantiated by a thorough investigation, this fact would argue powerfully for immediate, urgent progress on critical life-saving technology like Positive Train Control (PTC), which prevents trains from speeding. Delaying PTC only leads to preventable and predictable tragedy," he said in a statement.
