Page 2 - Overtaking Train News Today

Attempted to slow down? >> we dont have any information on that. right now, our focus is on the actual emergency response. that is what we do in emergency management, making sure that we can support any requests for resources to first responders. that is a more of a question for ntsb. we havent heard any rumors or any reports like that. as i said our focus on the people on board the train and making sure they have someplace warm and making sure anybody who is injured is getting treated. >> also,...

History, in recent months. and its going to raise the question of is there adequate funding at amtrak and does the -- have the most advance safety does she most safety components when put on the line. the front-end camera will tell us what happened. >> the three accidents you speak of. one september 18th that derailed in washington and three people died there. the other was just this past week where one person died when a truck crashed into an amtrak train. i believe they are now saying that the...

Night. >> andy, thanks so much. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. on the phone with us now the chairman of the ntsb robert we are looking at this train crash between an amtrak train and a csx freight train that happened about five and a half hours ago in south carolina. chairman, thank you so much for being with us. what can you tell us about the situation there in casey, south carolina? >> good morning, christy and thank you for having me we will have a team arriving in colum a columbia...

In our state farmers market which is within a few hundred yards of where this occurred. we are at a place where they unload cars off of freight trains on to a yard where they put on trucks for distribution, new cars. apparently, that is where this accident occurred. >> so what did you see in terms of the passenger trains or the passenger cars that were derailed and the csx train? >> yes. its very hard to see much of that part. apparently up closer to the front is where the most damage is. our fi...

In this case, probably would have prevented the accident. >> yeah. we are hearing similar questions and concern from mary schiavo when the government will complement these plans to add positive train control after the train crashes we have seen the past several months. peter goelz of the national transportation safety board, thank you. >> thank you. >> we will be back with the breaking news out of south carolina. but some people still like cable. just like some people like pre-shaken sodas. havi...

>> yeah, they did say that. so, listen, mary, thank you so much. i want to get to derrec becker. we talked to you a while ago ago. give us an update where things stand now some five hours after this crash happened. >> not much information from our last media briefing 30 minutes ago. i can confirm that all passengers have been removed from the train. they have either been transported to the hospital. we have over 70 people who have been transported to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injurie...

Latest updates on this topic.

>> yeah. my wife got in contact with her family. they are fine. ive reached out to friends and family. they all know im okay. im pretty sure they will wake up my messages. but everybody has informed everybody that we are fine. >> i know there are more important things than what happened at the front of the train, but could you see the area of impact, where the amtrak train hit or -- hit this the csx train? >> no. i mean, the only thing you could really see from my vantage point was it looked lik...

New york to miami. >> do we have paul kirby on the phone with the lexington ledger some we are waiting to get paul. he is there on the scene and he is trying to get more information for us. you can see the route there. you just saw the route there from new york to orlando. we know this train was traveling south because we talked to d derrick pett away and he was on a sleeper train and he was sleeping when he felt the jolt. his passenger car had derailed but was still upright. and we talked to hi...

Still upright? >> correct. >> okay. >> could you tell from the scene, when you were taken off the train, how many passenger cars may have derailed? >> it was pretty dark. i really couldnt see anything. just the ones that we could see were just kind of our car into the back, somewhere half on, half off. the cafe car was the one that looked like it received the worse damage and that is pretty much -- i didnt go to the front of the train so i really cant tell how many other cars were damaged or wha...