From: democrats@fail.us   
      
   XPost: pa.politics, sac.politics, alt.politics.liberalism   
   XPost: alt.transportation.trains.driving.high-on-cocaine   
      
   (CNN)How do all seven cars and the engine of an Amtrak train   
   jump the rails, sending passengers, luggage, laptops and more   
   flying?   
      
   One possibility jumped ahead of all others Wednesday: speed.   
      
   Authorities haven't said, definitively, what caused the   
   derailment of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 in   
   Philadelphia on Tuesday night. But the National Transportation   
   Safety Board said that preliminary data show the train's speed   
   exceeded 100 mph before the derailment. That would be more than   
   twice the 50 mph speed limit for the curve it was in.   
      
   An official with direct knowledge of the investigation earlier   
   said that authorities were focusing on speed as a possible   
   cause, given the angles of the wreckage and type of damage to   
   the cars. The recorder, or "black box," discovered at the scene   
   could be pivotal by showing just that, former NTSB official John   
   Goglia said.   
      
   Peter Goelz, once a top NTSB figure and now a CNN analyst,   
   predicted that a definitive conclusion could come soon.   
      
   "I'm afraid that this train might be going too fast for this   
   turn," he said.   
      
   Investigators looking at speed as factor   
      
   NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt has said only that his team   
   will examine things such as the condition of the track and the   
   train, how the signals operated and "human performance."   
      
   Even if it's determined the train was going too fast, that could   
   be due to the engineer or a mechanical issue, such as faulty   
   brakes.   
      
   "You have a lot of questions, we have a lot of questions,"   
   Sumwalt told reporters. "We intend to answer many of those   
   questions in the next 24 to 48 hours."   
      
   Midshipman, AP staffer among the 7 dead   
   Whatever the cause, it doesn't change the suffering that many   
   experienced Wednesday -- be they survivors dealing with physical   
   and emotional trauma, or relatives of the seven people killed   
   after a few frenetic, horrific moments. Some 238 passengers and   
   five crew members were on the train when it crashed around 9:30   
   p.m. Tuesday.   
      
   One of those who didn't make it was Jim Gaines, a father of two   
   who worked as a video software architect for The Associated   
   Press, his company said.   
      
   His family asked for privacy, saying: "Jim was more precious to   
   us than we can adequately express."   
      
   Another was a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman in full uniform   
   heading home to New York on leave from the Annapolis, Maryland,   
   school. A family member described 20-year-old Justin Zemser as a   
   great person and genius whose death has left his parents "beside   
   themselves."   
      
   Hospitals have treated more than 200 others, at least half of   
   whom have been released. That figure included eight in critical   
   condition among the 23 wounded passengers at Temple University   
   Hospital -- the closest trauma center to the crash site --   
   according to Herb Cushing, the hospital's medical director. The   
   number of patients there was down from 25 earlier.   
      
   "Most patients' conditions are either stable or better so that's   
   very very good news," Cushing said.   
      
   He said many passengers were injured when other passengers or   
   objects fell on them. One of those hurt is the train's engineer,   
   who received medical treatment and was interviewed by police,   
   Mayor Michael Nutter said.   
      
   Authorities have not ruled out the possibility of more victims   
   at the crash site.   
      
   "We are heartbroken by what we've experienced here," Nutter said   
   Wednesday morning. "We have not experienced anything like this   
   in modern times."   
      
   Amtrak train crash victims tell their stories   
      
   'A lot of questions'   
   The miracle may be how some escaped relatively unscathed, given   
   the severity of the derailment. A U.S. Department of   
   Transportation representative told CNN that the engine and two   
   cars were left standing upright, three cars were tipped on their   
   sides, and one was nearly flipped over on its roof. The seventh   
   one was "leaning hard."   
      
   "It is amazing," Nutter said. "I saw some people last night   
   literally walking off that train. I don't know how they did it."   
      
   The Washington-New York corridor is the busiest stretch for   
   Amtrak nationwide. Hundreds of trains, carrying thousands of   
   passengers, have made that trip in recent years, most of them   
   rolling seamlessly from start to finish on a roughly 3½-hour   
   journey.   
      
   That's what seemed to be happening Tuesday night, passenger   
   Daniel Wetrin said.   
      
   "Everything was normal," he said. "Then it was just chaos."   
      
   Jeremy Wladis was in the very last car, eating, when he noticed   
   the train starting to do "funny things. And it gradually starts   
   getting worse and worse."   
      
   Things started flying -- phones, laptops. "Then people."   
      
   "There were two people in the luggage rack above my head. Two   
   women, catapulted (there)."   
      
   As she read a book in the second-to-last car, Janna D'Ambrisi   
   said, she "felt like we were going a little too fast around a   
   curve. The car she was in started to tip, and she was thrown   
   onto another woman.   
      
   "People started to fall on us," she said. "I just held on to her   
   leg and sort of bowed my head and I was kind of praying, 'Please   
   make it stop.' "   
      
   Fortunately, D'Ambrisi's train car didn't tip over and she made   
   it out safely. She credited many people -- including one fellow   
   passenger who guided people with his shoes off -- for stepping   
   up.   
      
   "Everyone was just trying to help the people who were injured,   
   who had blood coming out of their head, their noses, to help   
   them sit down in the dirt away from the rails," she said.   
      
   'Heavily used stretch of track'   
   The locomotive was built by Siemens and delivered to Amtrak in   
   2014 specifically for its Northeast Corridor service, a Siemens   
   official said. That makes it fairly new, which doesn't rule out   
   the train's condition playing a role in the crash but seemingly   
   makes it less likely.   
      
   One factor that can't be discounted is where the crash happened.   
      
   "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."   
      
   The derailment was Amtrak's ninth this year, according to the   
   Federal Railroad Administration, and while its cause has not yet   
   been determined, some, like Wald, are already discussing the   
   nation's aging rail infrastructure.   
      
   Noting President Barack Obama's commitment to upgrading the   
   country's infrastructure, White House press secretary Josh   
   Earnest said the Obama administration is "hard at work" trying   
   to figure out what caused the crash, and that their thoughts and   
   prayers are with the families of everyone affected.   
      
   "Along the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak is a way of life for   
   many," the President said later in a statement. "From   
   Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to New York City and Boston,   
   this is a tragedy that touches us all."   
      
   http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/13/us/philadelphia-amtrak-train-   
   derailment/   
      
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