Asella Train News Today

Congressional limited train crash. it was the countrys worst rail accident since 1918. but it wasnt the only crash on the new york-washington line. in 1996 50 years later and about 95 miles north of the philadelphia crash, an amtrak train derailed. it then sideswiped another train after crossing the 100-year-old portal bridge. 43 people were injured, though no one was killed. in this case the rails on the bridge were not returned to the right position after the bridge opened to allow a tug boat ...

Naval academy student justin zemser, one of the victims of the crash, spoke to reporters. >> he was supposed to come home last night at 10:30. when i went online to see, you know, if everything was on time they said there was a derailment. and then it was all plastered on tv. and i kept on calling hospitals, but nothing. and then we got the phone call this morning that my son has passed. >> what can you tell us about the latest on the recovery efforts? >> reporter: its still very much an active ...

There was also a forward-facing camera that is put on the front of the train. and we know that officials here investigators here have also been speaking to the engineer. that is the individual driving the train. so all of those are going to be key pieces in the preliminary investigation of the ntsb but we also know the data box reporter, or the black box reporter has been taken to amtrak facilities in delaware. thats certainly going to be instrumental to try to determine perhaps the speed of the...

>> there certainly is. my heart goes out to the families of those who were hurt and certainly those who died. look democrats are not -- we passed a authorization bill. we agreed we can authorize is the most x percent. its what the appropriators give you. now, amtrak said it needed two billion just for state of good repair, who are just keeping the train going. i am very concerned that were driving into a safety wreck, and i must say, it may be coincidence that the cut came today, but the cuts ha...

Happen. but people were really good last night. >> how did you actually physically get out of the train? >> so we were the final car. within a few minutes, there was a police officer that somehow made his way on board and helped open the back door which was stuck and there were people from the neighborhood nearby who rushed to the scene and were helping people get out the back of the car. i had actually lost my shoes at some point. we were pulled off the train and standing off to the side. we co...

>> thanks for that update. joining me now is msnbcs national correspondent joy reid, who is at temple university hospital. what can you tell us about the injuries and those in the hospital at present? >> i can tell you, it was just a press conference here earlier in which they talked about the eight people still in critical care. they also talked about one of the patients that they treated who unfortunately did not survive. his name was james marshall gaines, a 48-year-old father of two, survive...

And injured another 200 and it happened just steps away from another rail accident more than 70 years earlier. on september 6th of 1943, an even deadlier railroad crash took place in philadelphia less than a mile from tuesdays accident. at the time, the doncongressional limited train was the fastest on the pennsylvania railroad line. it traveled between washington, d.c. and new york city at the then unheard of speed of 80 miles per hour. on labor day 1943 541 people boarded the limited at washin...

Were minor in the big scheme of things. it felt like it was going fast but the train always feels like its going fast. i trust and rely on amtrak to make sure that its going safely. >> yeah. and the train was i believe a seven-car train, and nearly everyone on it had some kind of injury, or if not physically then surely theres some psychological trauma that everyone sustained. let me just ask you, when you got off the train did you talk to other folks who were on the train, and what were they sa...

Those that are currently here trying to identify everyone that was on that train. as you were mentioning, he did talk about the death toll. that death toll as of now stands at seven. more than 200 people injured. he would not put a total number of how many people are unaccounted for, though he did confirm that there is a number, at least of people that are not accounted for. in terms of the investigation, thats still very much ongoing. he did not comment on where the investigation stands. did no...

Rules. the asella train has something called positive train control, or automatic train stop. so that speed is monitored, and if the engineer for whatever reason, is exceeding the speed, the train will automatically stop. youve got an amtrak train in this accident that apparently did not have that feature. so it is possible through technology to monitor speed. we will know more once we get the read out of the black box. but from my perspective, that technology ought to be on every train in the n...