The death toll for the Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia is rising, with six people dead after the Amtrak train crash left multiple cars in a pile of twisted metal. To a certain extent, it is amazing there were not more deaths since the Amtrak crash involved 238 passengers and five Amtrak employees who were on the Northeast Regional Train 188 while traveling from Washington, D.C. to New York City.
In a related report by the Inquisitr , many Amtrak crash videos are making their way onto YouTube, Twitter, Vine, and Instagram since many of the passengers had their smartphones out during the commute.
Paul Cheung said he was watching a movie on Netflix when the Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia occurred.
“The train started to decelerate, like someone had slammed the brake,” he said. “Then suddenly you could see everything starting to shake. You could see people’s stuff flying over me. The front of the train is really mangled. It’s a complete wreck. The whole thing is like a pile of metal.”
Another passenger, Daniel Wetrin, described the Amtrak derailment like a scene out of a movie.
“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.”
More than 200 passengers were treated at local hospitals, and initial reports estimated the death toll to be lower. So, how could it rise almost a day later for the Amtrak derailment? Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter says not everyone on the passenger manifest has been accounted for and the horrible conditions on the ground require search teams to look inside the mangled remains of train cars in hope of finding signs of life.
“It is a devastating scene down there,” Nutter said, according to Fox News . “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.”
Authorities say it is possible there are still victims at the Amtrak crash site. Investigators have already ruled out terrorism, and the Amtrak derailment was not caused by another Philadelphia train. According to CNN , some experts note that the Frankford Junction , which was the site of the Amtrak crash, also happens to need repair.
“It’s an extremely heavily used stretch of track,” transportation analyst Matthew L. Wald said of the area. “They have trouble keeping it in a state of good repair.”
[Image via Patrick J. Murphy/Twitter]