Amtrak Train Derailment; 8 Dead; 140 Injured
- Details
- Category: World News
- Published on Wednesday, 13 May 2015 04:55
- Written by Janet Walker
New York bound Northeast Regional Amtrak Train 188 originating in Washington, D.C. with 238 passengers on board derailed outside Philadelphia leaving eight dead and hundreds injured some critical with life threatening injuries.
The derailment occurred approximately 10:00pm, (EST), and was reportedly on a curve outside the north Philadelphia station near Frankford Junction, where the train had a scheduled stop, when passengers described the train intensely vibrating and instantaneously flipping.
Seven of the train cars were off the tracks, overturned, with extreme damage as the sides were sheared off leaving gaping holes in the coach cars.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is on site. Preliminarily investigations have cited speed as a possible factor. Speed for the motorcar is limited in the area to 50MPH. No further information on the cause has been released.
Passengers described immediate chaos, with all passengers working to ensure everyone made it to safety. Some described being tossed about and others catapulted to the luggage racks above the seats.
Former Pennsylvania Congressman Patrick J. Murphy (D) was on board the ill-fated train and provided on site photos and updates through, the micro-messaging platform, Twitter.
Social media delivered the news first with photos and tweets, Twitter, relaying the news and attaching photos.
Facebook has not notified the general public if its emergency notification system attached to personal pages has been activated so those on board can receive Facebook messages to confirm their safety.
This is a developing story.
Images courtesy of former Congressman Patrick J. Murphy
