Report: Train May Have Been Hit With Object Before Crash
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The FBI is investigating, focusing on a hole in the windshield.
The revelation came at a National Transportation Safety Board briefing on Friday evening, raising new questions about the accident. NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt declined to speculate about the exact significance of a projectile, but the idea raised the possibility that the engineer might have been distracted, panicked or even wounded in the moments before the train left the rails.
The train sped up to twice the speed limit when it was supposed to be slowing down as it entered a sharp bend in the tracks on its way from Washington to New York.
The NTSB said the FBI will focus its investigation on the windshield of the train.
Sumwalt said the information about a projectile came from an assistant conductor, who said she heard Amtrak engineer and the engineer from a nearby Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority regional train talking just before the derailment. Sumwalt said she recalled hearing the regional train driver say his train had been hit by an object and then Brandon Bostian, the Amtrak engineer, say his train had been struck, too.
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Talkin_Truth May 16th, 2015 at 11:42 pm
This morning NPR had a former transportation official and he was dismissive that an object hitting a train would have caused this. I gather it’s a pretty common occurrence.
robert May 17th, 2015 at 3:04 am
its not going to absolve why the train was going 100mph
might as well pull out all the tricks while you can before this goes to court
John Tarter May 17th, 2015 at 9:19 am
This is totally irrelevant piece of information. One rock or even one bullet cannot derail an object as heavy as a multiple car train.
starskeptic May 17th, 2015 at 1:26 pm
…if the bullet went through the conductor leading to his speeding up the train – yes it could said to derail an object that heavy.
bpollen May 17th, 2015 at 4:18 pm
OK, I have an experiment for you to check your grasp of physics. Take a pistol, get in your car, speed up to 100 miles an hour. Then shoot yourself in the head and see if the car stays on the road. Be sure to report back the results.
CHOCOL8MILK May 17th, 2015 at 5:58 pm
RWNJ’s will probably speculate that the engineers gayness attracted the projectile.