I didnt want to misspeak to you. That is govenor como arriving on the scene of this train derail. Ment. Of the only official information we can get in. The Train Derailment happened a few hours ago we have been able to speak to spokesperson. We had a train derail this morning at 7 220 a. M. 100 feet north of the metro north station. This was a passenger train that originated at 5 54 in the morning and was due florida grand centra due intogrand. We dont have any information on the passengers and crew members that may have beeninjured. We do have a little bit of an update. The latest that is coming in from the Fire Department is that the number is 63yearold and ad four fatalities. The information changes by the minute but we had a fairly lengthy conversation and i want you to hear as much as that as possible here is a little more information from aaron don donon the spokesperson from metro north. It was as seven car train. The first five cars derailed. It was in the curve . The tracks where the hudson river meets the harr little hari coach know hoiidont know how e on the train. It was an Early Morning train and it was typically less crowded than normal. Of course today was a holiday. Right now we are going to bring in ourin transportation expert. Dr. Todd curtis, dr. Curtis are you there . I can hear you. While we are speaking the govenor has arrived on the scene as well as Police Commissioner ray kelly. So, dollar dr. Curtis to be cles very, very early on this very lengthy investigation. As you have been listening this morning the early witness accounts the train was going fast. The trains go fast. Do we really know what that means right now . We dont. Because how fast the train should be going in that particular section of the track will depend on several factors. And one of the factors that was mentioned a few minutes ago was the fact that the train was being not pull by a lyco mow l , it was pushed by a locomotive. It te depends on the procedure f the rail company. Tell us what is different if it was pushed by a will h a loce rather than pulled. This has been a train that has been upforquite up for quites they have specific pro see procs for what kind of locomotion should be done for this kind of situation. Given the passenger load and the number of cars. Now what im expecting given this is apparently a fatal, that the nsta maybe involved to the level of having a major investigation. If that is the case they would be looking at that kind of information. Dr. Curtis there are witnesses that are telling our reporters on the scene that there were people that were able to jump out of this train as it was coming off the tracks. Is there anything that you can glean from that . All i can say from that is the witness statementare what they are. They could have literally jumped off the train or they could mistaken Something Else for people jumping off the train or it could be something entirely different. The amount of information is changing from moment to moment. And what i would like to see if its available, any sort of video either taken by passengers inside of the train or from the derailing cameras that may shed light as to what happened and what sequence. How like liberal is i likelye are cameras out there . Im fairly certain given the prevalence of cell phone cameras in everyones pocket there would have been video at least after the video started, that is, surviving passengers or people nearby may have been taking pictures the key thing what may have been done of that would include photos taken of the train before it got to the accident. Early video may show if there was sparks coming out of the wheels or that sort of thing im looking at as much video information as possible is very important for the investigators. Dr. Curtis remind people what we are seeing Police Commissioner ray kelly is on the scene and govenor kuono. Kuomo we know there are black boxes for planes. Are there black boxes for trains . Typically there are. In inner city like this a commuter train im not sure what the rules are for putting those devices in there. That is something that the nta will bring to the table soon. And if there is anything like that and the ntsb becomes involved it becomes a federal investigation its that organization that would analyze the data like that. How important is it what witnesses heard. Well obviously its important what they saw but how important is it what they heard. Its important if they heard something out of the ordinary. Its especially important if they not only heard it but they sole how recorded that information. Recorded some how recorded that information. The witness testimony would be important but if it were recorded its possible that one can do the analysis on the frequency of the sound comparing that to the normal kind of stoned coming oust o come kid coming out of the train. That could be the key to showing that something was wrong with the particular system. Two things to look for here. If there are reliable witnesses that can describe what they heard. And accurately describe what they heard. And more important are there any recording devices that occurred the sound the as they occurred. This morning we have had recounted some horrible things that have happened with rail lines this year. Another incident with metro north. And a couple of other three other incidents we recounted. Could you put in context or perspective how safe rail travel is or not. Rail travel in its various forms from interstate travel like amtrak in the northeast corridor or the lodg longer dise train or committeer trains like this one which is traveling less than a hundred miles from the beginningbeginning of its stope end of its stop. Are relatively safe andly they n they do have accidents its unusual to he 150 see a fatal t like today. There have been several investigations of Train Derailments in the past few years most of them not dealing with passenger trains. Dr. Curtis i need to interrupt you. I need to get back to the scene to get the latest from our report iron the scene morgan radford. You just saw the govenor and it appears the Police Commissioner ray kelly over here leaving the scene. Everyone is here and the scene has calle calmed down and the mf the crew has dispursed right now. Im basically in the wood as you can see here. This is as close as they are letting us get the Police Officer just came over and asked me to leave. We just saw again the govenor and it appears to be Police Commissioner ray kelly. Morgan thank you very much for all of the reporting you have done this morning. Looking ahead we dont flo dono are sure if the govenor and Police Commissioner will be part of the press conference what we are anticipating at any moment is an update. A press Conference Live from the scene. It will certainly be led and parts of it to get the very latest the First Official press conference from the scene. The latest about what happened here at this Train Derailment in the bronx, new york, the hudson line. Live pictures from the science. What i scene. What is happening right now the govenor and the Police Commissioner are taking a look at the scene. There are n ther. There are no rescue efforts going on and there happen to be recovery of iv ef efforts going. There are a there are four fatalities and 63 people injured in the derailment in the seven car train. Some of the cars left the track and coming right up to the edge of the river there. Some of the cars stayed on the track. But that doesnt mean because people were in the car that safe on the tracks were not injured as well. A terrifying scene. The train left this morning a little before 6 00 and anticipatinanticipate avenue ar5 there were family and friends waiting for this train to arrive. This being a Holiday Weekend we dont know how many people were on the train. Perhaps there are more than usual. That should be coming together soon. No doubt they are probably trying to ask some questions we have some updates right now. We are going to move in and listen here. And the presser is coming together now. There as well. Not exactly the way anyone expected. Im going to put everyone on speaker. It left this ne morning at 5 54d its destination was Grand Central at 7 22. It derailed out here. Seven cars being pushed by a a locomotive. All seven cars derailed. There are four fay i fatalities3 injured and they have been transported to hospital close by. If anyone has any questions with respect to a missing person that may have been on the train they should call 311. 311 to identify the location of their lost one in d one in the hospital. Its apparently a tragic situation. There are four fatalities. Please call 311 if you are concerned about someone that was on the train. New york is blessed with the best First Responders in the country. And the fine Fire Department personnel and amtrak personnel an nta personnel were right on site and did an extraordinary job. As we speak in terms of causes, we dont know exactly what happened, the nts is on its way theyll do a thorough investigation and well wait to see what the ntsb says before speculating as any causes. Govenor is anyone cup i unaccounted for and can you talk about the extent of their injuries . Seriously injured and we think everyone is accounted for. The site has been gone over a number of times. What about the operator of the train. The operator is alive and is injured and is being cared for medically now. The passengers that unfortunately died, what car were they in . The two cars that are on the side you can see in the front of the fria train. The two cars turned on the side i know the ntsb is coming to do an investigation what type of things are they looking at. Whenever you do an investigation like this you are looking at track, the equipment and the cars and the locomotive and the signal system and you are going to talk to the people involved in operating the train that is standard investigation and well support that and make sure that we get all of the factual information forward and its too early to speculate any further. We had a location a little fourther soutfurther south of t. Was the track involved this morning. I dont believe it was. Its very important we let the investigation go forward before we make comments. We have i heard reports from people that ride the train often that it seemed to be going faster than it normally would. One of the key things you want to do is interview the crew. How many were were offe on boar. I dont know everyone hundred. Be. The focus right now is on the customers that are injured and making sure that we do everything we can to support the National Transportation safety board in their investigation. Theyll be here later this afternoon once they clear the track and they say its okay to restore. Well begin the efforts to restore service. We are working on plans to provide a bus shuttle but right now the focus on the customers and ensuring that they are okay. Is it critical . I think the govenor answered that. There were 11 critical and the rest were less so. Can you address what the standard pro sai procedures are. Any curve would have a speeding restriction on it. That is something that they look at in the investigation. What we do know is the operator is being treated. We do know that four people lost nartheir lives today in the holy season after thanksgiving and they are in our thoughts and prayers. Their families have not yet been notified. Lets all say a prayer and remember knows peopl o those the lost this morning. Well lot th let the first resps do their job and well tell you when it the service will be restored. But we need some more information before we da can mae any hard determinations on that. I want to thank the First Responders who are doing a fantastic job right now i want to thank commissioner kelly for his help this morning. What is the next step in the process right now. All right you have been listening of course to the govenor and also someone from the metro north. Between the two of us we can wrap up what the govenor was saying. I will let you take over. Here is what we do know. There were more than 100 people on this train. There are four fa fatalities. Eleven are critically injured. There are some who are less injured. The people that are being cared for are at area hospitals. And we know that the fatalities, the people who did die in this terrible accident were in the first two cars. And im sure that you guys have a visual on that right now. Those appear to be in pretty bad shape right now. You know the govenor did say, this is a tragic situation and right now the biggest priority are caring for the people that have been injured. They are trying to stabilize the situation. They are not going to give too many details on what may exactly have caused it. We know the operator of the train is alive and is being cared for. They are going to give us updates throughout the day. This did happen 3weu6 obvioun a curve and the curves have speed restrictions. One thing i can add is that the spokesperson says there are black boxes on these trains. And these black boxes should be able to tell you how fast the train was traveling that will be something that they will be able to figure out very i have very,y quickly. There is so much speculation but at some point there will not be specspeculation on how fast the train was going. Its marc the nta who says thera black box. And she also says the curve this derailment happened is in a slow speed area. What exactly does that mean in a slow speed area. That again depends on the context of the rail line and the procedures of the nta. Whatever the normal cruising speed is for a straight piece of track it will be considerably less for the curve and if bun looks aonelooks at the overheadt curve is near the station. This goes to the nta and the procedures of that train and whether the procedures were followed and whether there was equipment issues. Its very clear that the ntsb will be the lead organization for this investigation although as is typically the case, they will involve the nta which is the operator of the train in this investigation. So together, between the ntsb looking at it from their perspective and their rather expen oextensive experience inn derailmentses it wilrailments ir what caused the accident. Todd if you could stay close we are getting the reaction from the people on the train one passenger spoke about the terrifying incident a few moments ago. Lets listen. I was sitting on the train and not paying attention to anything in particular and then the at any rat train felt a lite sideways and then when i looked up it was going off the track. I was in a lucky car i was in the one that landed 90 degrees sideways and no one was hurt and we all got out okay. I didnt realize the state of the other cars until i got out and i could see everybody. It sounds like a terrifying experience that she is describing there, todd. You can see there is a bit of a mark on her face. Its amazing that anybody actually as many people survived this as they actually d lets talk about how the cars are designed for people to be able to survive the worst. A key difference between rail cars and other transportation there are no seatbelts of any kind. I dont know the configuration of these so i cant speak to that. Typically you dont see the restraints put into trains as you do aircraft for one most of the accidents are not as bad as this one today. But derailing entirely and turning sideways and rolling beyond 90 degrees that is unusual for passenger trains or freight trains for that matter. One thing i will say, when an event like this happens and the ntsb and the other relevant parts of the government look at this, what is the survivability of this accident . Are there things about the design and operation of vehicles that could be changed to make this event more surviv survivabn the future. That is a fairly long process. The ntsb does not have authority to make regulatory changes but they have the power to make suggestions of changes. That is one of the things i will be looking at when the report comes out some months from now. What recommendation, if any, would they have to make rail travel safer for passengers. You always hope that they can make it better for passengers. Lets go back to the scene. Kelly is at the scene. The govenor gave us a lot of new information. Is the govenor still there and the Police Commissioner still there assessing the scene . Have they left. They both have left the area where the press conference has just been held. But Police Commissioner kelly just gave a few remarks off to the side and did say that there were 63 people in local hospitals that were taken to the hospital. 63 people taken to hospital and four fatalities and we know that more than 100 people were on this train. 11 critically injured. And we are still kind of looking at the scene as the responders walk the tracks and continue to try to figure out what exactly happened here. One question that bass put t to the govenor was there any one unaccounted for. We saw live pictures of the divers in the water certainly looking for people. And i hope im clear on this. Gogovenor seemed to say they werent looking for anybody else or there wasnt anyone unaccounted for. Im not exactly sure. It looks like somebody else is getting ready to speak right now it might be an eye witness im going to head over to choke that out. Out check that out. The govenor did ask people to call 311 if they were trying to locate. Do keep it here on al jazeera the hudson line of the metro north rail system. A seven car train on its way from po poa kip see poughkeepsi. Itto Grand Central station. This is what happened. And there is another press conference happening right now for us to get more information. Lets go ahead and listen. Do you have anyone unaccounted for chief . We have no victims left at the scene. They are all being cared for and treated. We dont know how many people were on the train. We are trying to get that from the nta. They are trying to check back and look into that. Right now we believe that everyone is accounted for. You said three of the four fatalities were not on the train. Can you elaborate. We believe three of the four fatalities were thrown out as the train came off the track and was twisting and turning. Did you have to make any water rescues. No the nypd are in the harbor and they are searching the water right in the immediate area as well as nypd using their dogs and they se