An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed and tipped over in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, mangling the front of it, tearing the cars apart and killing at least five people. Scores of passengers were injured, and some climbed out of windows to get away.
Mayor Michael Nutter, who confirmed the deaths, said the scene was horrific and not all the more than 240 people on the train had been accounted for.
- 2 hours agoThanks for joining our breaking news coverage. We are concluding our live updates for the evening. Please stay tuned to Yahoo News for developments on this story.
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- 5 hours agoLocal Philadelphia website Billy Penn is tweeting witness accounts from the crash.Televised footage of the scene appears to show at least one severely mangled car.Dozens of first responders on scouring the area with flashlights in an attempt to locate passengers and victims:Survivors area for the #Amtrak crash (our own @bethdavidz on the scene -- she's alright, shoeless but unharmed) http://t.co/InmVLcS9oF
"Quiet car and business class look like they got brunt" of Amtrak crash, reports @bethdavidz (train crash selfie) http://t.co/QGA3R2ixKi
An NBC News producer was on tonight's Amtrak Northeast Regional headed to NYC from Phillyhttps://t.co/ZMsm1v1mhS.@AP on the Philly Amtrak crash: "The front of the train was going into a turn when it shook"http://t.co/KJFNTigH9N - Philadelphia Police
@PhillyPoliceAttn: Public - Do NOT go to scene of derailment. Please allow 1st responders room to work - 5 hours ago
- 5 hours agoStatement from the Philadelphia Fire Department: "Please keep the passengers and all emergency personnel in your thoughts as we continue to respond to the train derailment."
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- 5 hours ago@PhillyFireNews reports that police are transporting crash victims to hospitals in the back of police wagons 4 to 5 at a time.
- Jonathan Lai
@ElaijuhMayor Nutter is on scene of the Amtrak train derailment here in Port Richmond, Philadelphia. - 5 hours ago
- 5 hours agoAccording to Amtrak's website, Train 188 was scheduled to depart Washington, D.C. at 7:10 p.m. and arrive at NYC's Penn Station at 10:34 p.m.
- Action News on 6abc
@6abcUPDATE: Action News is told 40-60 injured in train derailment, being taken to Temple, Jefferson, Hahnemann, Einstein 6abc.cm/1QHHS7j - 5 hours ago
- PhillyFireNews.com
@PhillyFireNewsUPDATE -#Philly 100+ people transported- Every Hospital in the city receiving pt. Co.s still trying to gain access to several train cars - Janelle_News
@Janelle_NewsVideo I took moments after crash. People trying to open the door and get off the train. - 4 hours agoThe Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office tells Yahoo News that as of 11:15 p.m. they have not been asked to report to the scene of the train derailment.
- amtrak
@AmtrakInjuries reported in train 188 incident, all service canceled this evening btwn NY/Philly. Updates to follow: bit.ly/1KHoMdO. - 4 hours agoPennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf released a statement on the derailment via Twitter:My thoughts and prayers are with all involved in the Amtrak train accident in Philadelphia tonight. Thank you to the first responders. - TW
- 4 hours agoAmtrak train derails in Port Richmond; about 50 hurthttp://t.co/xz20AgFpcg #phillyhttp://t.co/lkKjnK4U4e
- 4 hours agoPhotos from tonight's Amtrak derailment in Port Richmond http://t.co/DIv1xCk5YUhttp://t.co/ZzJqcOYPGU
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- 3 hours agoTonight's tragedy occurred less than a mile from a derailment that killed 79 passengers in 1943. The wreck of the "Congressional Limited" - considered to be Pennsylvania Railroad's premier train at that time - is 4th deadliest derailment in U.S. history. On Sept. 6, 1943, the train was en route from DC to NYC as well when it crashed. Below are archive photos published in a National Railway Historical Society newsletter in 2009.
- 3 hours agoBREAKING: At least five people are confirmed dead in the train derailment, Mayor Nutter said in a press conference. There were 243 passengers on the train including five crew.
- 3 hours agoMORE: "It is a devastating scene down there," Nutter told reporters. "It's an absolute disastrous mess."
Nutter added: "We do not know how this happened. We do not know why this happened. We are not going to speculate."
Of the 53 people injured, six are said to be critical, according to fire officials. - 2 hours ago
"It is an absolute disastrous mess," he said. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."
He said all seven train cars, including the engine, were in "various stages of disarray." He said there were cars "completely overturned, on their side, ripped apart."
"It is a devastating scene down there," he said. "We walked the entire length of the train area, and the engine completely separated from the rest of the train, and one of the cars is perpendicular to the rest of the cars. It's unbelievable."
More than 140 people went to hospitals to be evaluated or treated, and six were critically injured.
The cause of the derailment, which shut down service on the busy Northeast Corridor, was unknown. Amtrak said it was investigating and was trucking in lights to illuminate the wreckage overnight as workers examined it. The mayor, citing the mangled train tracks and downed wires, said, "There's no circumstance under which there would be any Amtrak service this week through Philadelphia."
Train 188, a Northeast Regional, had left Washington, D.C. The front of the train was going into a turn when it started to shake before coming to a sudden stop.
An Associated Press manager, Paul Cheung, was on the train and said he was watching Netflix when "the train started to decelerate, like someone had slammed the brake."
"Then suddenly you could see everything starting to shake," he said. "You could see people's stuff flying over me."
Cheung said another passenger urged him to escape from the back of his car, which he did. He said he saw passengers trying to escape through the windows of cars tipped on their sides.
"The front of the train is really mangled," he said. "It's a complete wreck. The whole thing is like a pile of metal."
Another passenger, Daniel Wetrin, was among more than a dozen people taken to a nearby elementary school afterward.
"I think the fact that I walked off (the train) kind of made it even more surreal because a lot of people didn't walk off," he said. "I walked off as if, like, I was in a movie. There were people standing around, people with bloody faces. There were people, chairs, tables mangled about in the compartment ... power cables all buckled down as you stepped off the train."
The area where the derailment occurred is called Frankford Junction and has a big curve. It's near where one of the nation's deadliest train accidents occurred: the 1943 derailment of The Congressional Limited, from Washington to New York, which killed 79 people.
Police swarming around Tuesday's derailment site, in the working-class Port Richmond neighborhood, told people to get away from the train. They pleaded with onlookers: "Do NOT go to scene of derailment. Please allow 1st responders room to work."
Roads around the derailment site were blocked off. Waves of firefighters surrounded the train cars, taking people out.
Several injured people, including a man complaining of neck pain, were rolled away on stretchers. Others wobbled while walking away or were put on buses. An elderly woman was given oxygen.
Former Congressman Patrick Murphy was on the train and said he helped people. He tweeted photos of firefighters helping others in the wreckage.
"Pray for those injured," he said.
Amtrak said the train was carrying 238 passengers and five crew members.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information about the derailment and would send an investigative team to the site Wednesday morning. The Federal Railroad Administration said it was dispatching at least eight investigators to the scene.
Port Richmond is one of five neighborhoods in what's known as Philadelphia's River Wards, dense rowhouse neighborhoods located off the Delaware River. Area resident David Hernandez, whose home is close to the tracks, heard the derailment.
"It sounded like a bunch of shopping carts crashing into each other," he said.
The crunching sound lasted a few seconds, he said, and then there was chaos and screaming.
Gov. Tom Wolf, who surveyed the damage with the mayor, thanked the first responders for "their brave and quick action."
"My thoughts and prayers are with all of those impacted by tonight's train derailment," he said. "For those who lost their lives, those who were injured, and the families of all involved, this situation is devastating."
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