Amtrak train crashes in Philadelphia, multiple injuries reported

[txradioguy]

DEVELOPING: Several people reportedly were injured after an Amtrak train crashed in Philadelphia Tuesday evening.

Northeast Regional Train 188 was traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York City when it crashed just northeast of Philadelphia's Center City at approximately 9:30 p.m. local time. The front of the train was going into a corner when it shook.

Officials told MyFoxPhilly.com that at least 50 people are injured and were being transported to Temple University Hospital. Philly.com reported that there were approximately 230 passengers and five crew members on board.

An Associated Press employee, Paul Cheung, was on the train and said it appeared it went off the tracks. He said he was fortunate to be at the back of the train and the front of it "looks pretty bad."

Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer told Philly.com that 10 of the train's cars derailed.

Police swarming around the crash site, in Port Richmond, a working-class area, told people to get back, away from the train. They pleaded with curious onlookers: "Do NOT go to scene of derailment. Please allow 1st responders room to work."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/12/amtrak-train-crashes-in-philadelphia-several-people-appear-to-be-injured/

[Chris_]

Gummint employees.  I know, let's add more of them.

[thundley4]

Let's make trains that go even faster.

[Ptarmigan]

Instagram video shows interior view of Amtrak train wreck aftermath
http://twitchy.com/2015/05/12/instagram-video-shows-interior-view-of-amtrak-train-wreck-aftermath/

Gabriel Malor
‎@gabrielmalor

This video from inside the Amtrak that derailed. Whoa. https://
instagram.com/p/2mpeqNgMeW/

‘On Amtrak train that just crashed': Former Rep. Patrick Murphy tweets photos; 10 cars derail in Philadelphia
http://twitchy.com/2015/05/12/on-amtrak-train-that-just-crashed-former-rep-patrick-murphy-tweets-photos/

Patrick J. Murphy  ✔
‎@PatrickMurphyPA

Im on @Amtrak train that just crashed. Im ok. Helping others. Pray for those injured.
8:27 PM - 12 May 2015

Patrick J. Murphy  ✔
‎@PatrickMurphyPA

@Amtrak @msnbc @NBCNews pray for these passengers.
8:30 PM - 12 May 2015

Patrick J. Murphy  ✔
‎@PatrickMurphyPA

8:43 PM - 12 May 2015
   
 1,790
1,790 Retweets
 514
514 favorites

[Belle]

Such a terrible tragedy.  7 lost their lives, 200 injured.  At least 8 are in critical condition.
 
The crash is still under investigation, tho it appears that the train was going twice the recommended speed limit (@ 106 mph) for a curved section of the  track.  Also, the engineer applied emergency brakes just before the crash.

Why, with grief & loss so fresh, would those who have the media's ear, want to politicize this?

Here's a sampling:

- Peter Goelz, O'Neill & Assoc. Senior V.P (a lobbying firm) & former NTSB director:  "I mean, Amtrak has been under budgetary strains for close to 20 years"
- Ed Rendell, former PA Governor:  "It's just embarrassing what we do with our infrastructure."
- Joe Scarborough:  "We're talking about people who lost their lives because of our third-world infrastructure."
- Josh Earnest:  ...referring to President Obama "has been a long-time advocate for investing in our infrastructure...."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/joseph-rossell/2015/05/13/cnn-cnbc-and-msnbc-push-infrastructure-funding-after-amtrak-accident

I was born & raised in South Philly, & rode Amtrak many times.  You never think this is going to happen.   Such sadness for all those feelings the effects of this tragedy.

In prayer & remembrance:
- Jim Gains, 48, survived by his wife & 2 children, 11 & 16 yrs. old.  He worked for AP's wire service since '98.
- Justin Zemser, 20, midshipman, U.S. Naval Academy
- Rachael Jacobs, 39, chief exec. of ApprenNet, survived by her husband & 2 year old son. 
- Derrick Griffith, 42, Medgar Evers College, acting dean, student affairs.
- Abid Gilani, senior V.P. of Wells Fargo's hospitality finance group.

- Robert Gildersleeve, 45, father of 2, executive at Ecolab, listed as missing.

http://www.wisn.com/national/who-were-the-victims-of-the-amtrak-derailment/32999660

 

[Gina]

I'm disgusted that the first thing our gov't does is get on the throw more money at it bandwagon

[Chris_]

Amtrak Union Blames Management for Deadly Crash

Naturally.

[txradioguy]

Out of the $800 billion stimulus package that was passed in early 2009 for "infrastructure improvements" and "shovel ready" jobs...only $9 billion was actually put to that use.

 

[JohnnyReb]

- Joe Scarborough:  "We're talking about people who lost their lives because of our third-world infrastructure."

This is third world infrastructure.....

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT8J9s1RVjtgAP1hXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEza2UwbWVvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMzBHZ0aWQDVklQNTYyXzEEc2VjA3Nj?p=Indians+On+Train+In+India&fr=yfp-t-901

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AtBhMQPfVhd9G634xRdOOGubvZx4?p=indians+on+train+in+india&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-901&fp=1

[Gina]

- Joe Scarborough:  "We're talking about people who lost their lives because of our third-world infrastructure."

This is third world infrastructure.....

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT8J9s1RVjtgAP1hXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEza2UwbWVvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMzBHZ0aWQDVklQNTYyXzEEc2VjA3Nj?p=Indians+On+Train+In+India&fr=yfp-t-901

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AtBhMQPfVhd9G634xRdOOGubvZx4?p=indians+on+train+in+india&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-901&fp=1

What did they do with that Obamamoney they got?

[JohnnyReb]

What did they do with that Obamamoney they got?

Stuffed it all up a wild hogs ass and hollered SOOOWWWWEEEEEE.

[BlueStateSaint]

One more body was found.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AMTRAK_CRASH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-14-12-43-31

[Belle]

Much of the stimulus money was used for ready cash not only for the public unions, but used as rewards for other goodies, like big donors....who could forget Solyndra.

"The stimulus was a huge political slush fund with little accountability."

"For all their self-aggrandizing rhetoric about "helping the needy" with stimulus money, the reality is that Democrats simply helped themselves."

Liberalism. Its exhausting & destructive. 

From what I've read there's no evidence that the train crash could have been prevented with more cash.  Hopefully the masses will see through this rhetoric & not buy into it.  I can always dream.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/stimulus-501352-money-obama.html

Here's some info about Brandon Bostian, the Amtrak engineer; on the job since 2010. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/doomed-amtrak-train-engineer-refuses-talk-police-article-1.2221181

[obumazombie]

Why isn't this owebuma's fault ?
Anything newsworthy that had the potential to make Bush look bad was blamed on him when he was President.

[txradioguy]

Stuffed it all up a wild hogs ass and hollered SOOOWWWWEEEEEE.

Well that's one way of describing a donation to the Clinton Foundation.   

[thundley4]

They are reporting that the train accelerated from 70 mph to 106 mph in the last minute before the engineer hit the emergency brake.

Either the train was made by Toyota, or this could be a case of attempted mass murder and suicide.

[SVPete]

They are reporting that the train accelerated from 70 mph to 106 mph in the last minute before the engineer hit the emergency brake.

Either the train was made by Toyota, or this could be a case of attempted mass murder and suicide.

I don't think that many tons could accelerate that much in that short a time. But the radio stuff I've heard indicated that the several miles before the 50mph curve was an 80mph-rated area. Which means the engineer was "speeding", and not just a little over the limit.

What has me really POed about this - aside from what looks at this point like a criminally careless engineer killing 8 people and injuring ??? - is the way the MSM and some Ds are trying to pretzellize a human-caused tragedy into a political issue. Hello! 8 people died because one man got horribly careless! No speeder, no derailment.

There is a lesser issue with the lack of the automated braking system, BUT that was not an issue of lack of $$ but of how $$ was used. Some bunch of bureaucrats decided to make their busiest routes low priority for installing the braking system. That looks more like the proverbial Washington Monument Syndrome! Maybe if some bureaucratic heads rolled their salaries and bonuses could be applied toward installing that braking system!

[Belle]

SVPete:  "....is the way the MSM and some Ds are trying to pretzellize a human-caused tragedy into a political issue."
Sadly, its part of the liberal playbook.
Who could forget Rahm Emanuel:

"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rahmemanue409199.html

FYI:  The educational requirement to become a train engineer is a H.S. diploma.  They also receive 2 - 3 months training.
  http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Transportation-and-Material-Moving/Train-engineers-and-operators.htm

[SVPete]

I'm seeing news reports that indicate that the train did accelerate from 70mph to >100 mph in just a minute. So I guess my assessment above is incorrect, and locomotives are that powerful.

Concur, Belle. Opportunistic politicization seems to be the norm on the Lib/Prog side of things.

[mrclose]

I just Report The News.

Shooting selfies at 100 mph ... "Look Ma, no hands"!

By Shannon Knutsen

Gotnews.com has obtained the disturbing dick pics of #BrandonBostian, the engineer who killed at least 8 people in a horrific crash earlier this week.

Bostian has lawyered up and implausibly claimed that he has no memory of the events leading up to the crash.

Gotnews.com was the first to ID Bostian, a 32-year-old gay activist, as responsible for the crash in Philadelphia.

(I couldn't edit the D**k in the url link .. sorry)

BREAKING & NSFW: Here Are #Amtrak Engineer #BrandonBostian's Disturbing Dick Pics - GotNews

[DLR Pyro]

 If this is true, then this is the 2nd fatal train crash in recent history that had a gay engineer at the controls who was texting while driving the train.

[Gina]

   such a small blurb in the news

[obumazombie]

That diesel electric motor on the locomotive is rated at 2,000 horsepower as I recall.
It was only pulling 7 or 8 passenger cars that were nowhere full.
Passenger cars are a lot lighter than freight cars so a big acceleration in a minute is not surprising to me.

I did hear some news today that there may have been some kind of attempted attack on the train close to the accident site which may have prompted the engineer into accelerating to get away from it.
Evidently trains had been attacked and damaged in that area recently.
If that's the case then the engineer doesn't need to be pilloried like he is being.

[thundley4]

That diesel electric motor on the locomotive is rated at 2,000 horsepower as I recall.
It was only pulling 7 or 8 passenger cars that were nowhere full.
Passenger cars are a lot lighter than freight cars so a big acceleration in a minute is not surprising to me.

I did hear some news today that there may have been some kind of attempted attack on the train close to the accident site which may have prompted the engineer into accelerating to get away from it.
Evidently trains had been attacked and damaged in that area recently.
If that's the case then the engineer doesn't need to be pilloried like he is being.

There is apparently a long history of thugs throwing rocks at trains as they pass through that area.

[Ptarmigan]

Amtrak Train Possibly Hit Before Wreck
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/16/us/amtrak-train-may-have-been-struck-before-it-derailed-officials-say.html?_r=0

PHILADELPHIA — The Amtrak train that derailed Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring more than 200, may have been struck by an object before it careened off the tracks, an assistant conductor on the train told investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board.

At a news conference on Friday, Robert L. Sumwalt, the safety board official who is leading the investigation, said an assistant conductor had reported that she believed she heard a radio transmission in which an engineer on a regional line said his train had been struck by a projectile and the engineer on the Amtrak train replied that his had been struck, too.

Mr. Sumwalt said that investigators had found a fist-size circular area of impact on the left side of the Amtrak train’s windshield and that they had asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to analyze it. He said that the F.B.I. had been called in because it has the forensics expertise needed for the investigation, but that it had not yet begun its analysis.

This raises red flags right there. I wonder if someone threw rocks or fired a gun at those trains.