Amtrak Crash: Investigators Examining Train’s Black Box, Seven Dead

Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images(PHILADELPHIA) — Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are at the site of an Amtrak crash in Philadelphia Wednesday trying to determine the cause of Tuesday night’s derailment, responsible for at least seven deaths, just as officials said they had recovered the train’s black box.

The preliminary focus of the probe is speed, officials confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.

The speed limit was 50 miles per hour, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., confirmed, and he said the initial report shows the train was traveling much faster.

The train did not slow down properly, Schumer added, and he said speed was likely the cause of the accident. Schumer said the engineer had a good record and the tracks were inspected Tuesday.

The train’s black box — known as an event recorder — has been recovered, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said at a news conference Wednesday, and is now being analyzed at Amtrak’s operation center in Delaware.

The engineer has given initial statements to police and is also being interview by federal accident investigators and other rail personnel.

Nutter said the investigation is ongoing and will take some time. He did not offer an exact timeline.

The accident happened at about 9:28 p.m. when six cars overturned and the engine separated from the rest of the train.

Amtrak said there were about 238 passengers and five crew members on board. Five people died at the accident scene, while a sixth person died at Temple University Hospital, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Herbert Cushing said. The mayor confirmed a seventh death Wednesday afternoon.

Hundreds of people were treated at area hospitals and 10 people remain in critical condition.

Asked how many people were unaccounted for, Nutter said officials “did not have an accurate count on that.”

Amtrak service between New York and Philadelphia is shut down Wednesday.

Deborah Hersman, former chair of the NTSB, says black boxes and possible video cameras may provide important information.

“The black boxes will tell them things like speed, throttle position, braking. … But also there are often inward and outward facing video cameras that will tell them a lot of information about the track conditions and the environmental conditions,” Hersman said. “The key to the team is going to be grabbing those recorders right away.”

Investigators will also look at all other trains that traveled the same section of track, she said.

The front end of the Northeast Regional train, which was traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York City, reportedly shook as it went into a turn and the train’s seven cars went off the rails. The Federal Railroad Administration reports that the engine of the train and two cars were upright, three were lying on their sides, one was nearly on its roof and one was leaning dramatically.

First responders used hydraulic tools to help trapped passengers out of the mangled cars.

Former Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick Murphy was on the train and he tweeted that he was okay and was trying to help others. He told ABC News’ Philadelphia station, WPVI-TV, that he heard a “bang,” and the train “wobbled” from one side to the other.

“Obviously, there was a lot of mayhem,” he told WPVI. “People were pretty banged up. There was a lot of blood, a lot of bleeding. I pulled myself up. The guy who I kind of landed on was OK. The guy next to him was completely passed out, knocked unconscious.”

Murphy said the unconscious man came to, got off the train and began to help other people. Murphy said to his knowledge, most people had gotten off the train as of 11:15 p.m.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper — who is a former Amtrak board member — got off the train in Wilmington, just before the crash.

He said in a video Wednesday, “I go back and forth on the train almost every day. Catch and early morning train and usually get out of D.C. on a train in the evening and be able to sleep in my own bed every night in Delaware. That’s what I did last night. I was doing my emails and had the television on and the news story broke that the train had just derailed north of Philadelphia. Just 30 minutes after I got off. And the visuals were very graphic and horrible.”

Carper added, “I had been on the train about an hour earlier from when I started seeing it be reported on the news and my initial reaction was concern for a lot of people I knew on the train… I prayed for a lot of people last night, and I still am.”

Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.