An Amtrak train struck a piece of heavy equipment just south of Philadelphia on Sunday, causing a derailment that killed two Amtrak workers and sent more than 30 passengers to hospital, authorities said.
Train 89 was heading from New York to Savannah, Georgia, at about 8am when it hit the equipment that was on the track in Chester, about 24km outside Philadelphia, officials said. The impact derailed the lead engine of the train which was carrying more than 300 passengers and seven crew members.
Chester Fire Commissioner Travis Thomas said two people were killed.
A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official confirmed that one was the operator of the equipment. US Senator Chuck Schumer said Amtrak chairman Anthony Coscia told him the other person killed was a supervisor and both were Amtrak employees.
The Delaware County medical examiner’s office said no information would be released until after autopsies were performed yesterday.
NTSB investigator Ryan Frigo said at an evening news conference that the event data recorder, and forward-facing and inward-facing video from the locomotive have been recovered.
He said the locomotive engineer was among those taken to hospital. Officials said earlier that none of the injuries was deemed life-threatening.
Schumer said it was unclear whether the equipment was being used for regular maintenance, which usually is scheduled on Sunday mornings because there are fewer trains on the tracks, or whether it was clearing debris after high winds in the area overnight, but he said Amtrak has “a 20-step protocol” for having such equipment, described by Amtrak as a backhoe, on the track, and no trains are supposed to go on a track when equipment is present.
“Clearly this seems very likely to be human error,” Schumer said, calling for Amtrak to review its processes. “There is virtually no excuse for a backhoe to be on an active track.”
Amtrak said service on the northeast corridor between New York and Philadelphia began operating after an earlier suspension and limited service was restored between Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia by Sunday afternoon.
Frigo said he did not know why the equipment was on a track the train was using. He said scheduling, the track structure and the work that was being performed at the time of the accident would be part of the investigation.
The event data recorder has been sent to the safety board’s laboratory in Washington and would answer such questions as how fast the train was going at the time of the crash, he said.
Ari Ne’eman, a disability rights activist heading to Washington after speaking at an event in New York, said he was in the second car at the time of the crash.
“The car started shaking wildly, there was a smell of smoke, it looked like there was a small fire and then the window across from us blew out,” Ne’eman, 28, of Silver Spring, Maryland, said.
Some passengers started to get off after the train stopped, but the conductor quickly stopped them, he said.
Officials began directing people to the rear of the train for evacuation and then to a nearby church.
“It was a very frightening experience. I’m frankly very glad that I was not on the first car,” Ne’eman said. “The moment that the car stopped, I said Shema, a Jewish prayer... I was just so thankful that the train had come to a stop and we were OK.”
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