Amtrak train derails, 6 dead, 150 injured
Emergency workers are searching through the wreckage Wednesday of a New York-bound Amtrak train that derailed and overturned late Tuesday, killing six people, injuring 150, and disrupting train service for thousands of riders in the Northeast region.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive this morning and join officials from multiple other agencies trying to determine what caused the crash.
The train carrying 243 people was headed to New York from Washington when it derailed around 9:30 p.m., officials said late on Tuesday. Dozens of people were taken to hospitals, the mayor of Philadelphia, Michael A. Nutter, said.
“It is an absolute disastrous mess,” Mr. Nutter said. “I have never seen anything like this in my life.”
Emergency workers moved from car to car helping passengers off the train, some bloodied, others dazed and confused.
“Train cars are overturned,” the city fire commissioner, Derrick J. V. Sawyer, said. “They’re in horrible shape. There’s a bunch of debris down there, sharp objects. It’s a dangerous situation for responders, even more dangerous for the riders out there.”
“The crash killed six people, one of them a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman, according to a source close to the Annapolis, Maryland, school.
Hospitals have treated another 150 people, at least half of whom have been released. That figure includes eight in critical condition among the 25 wounded passengers at Temple University Hospital, according to Herb Cushing, the hospital’s medical director.
