A speeding Amtrak train was doing more than double the 50 mph limit before a sudden deadly derailment on a sharp curve killed seven people and injured more than 200 others.
Northeast Regional Train 188 was zipping through Philadelphia at more than 100 mph when the engine and its seven passenger cars skidded off the rails, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The body of the seventh victim was pulled from the wreckage Wednesday as first responders combed through the twisted metal in a macabre search for the missing, officials said.
Federal investigators arrived at 4 a.m. Wednesday in the hunt for answers at the Philadelphia disaster.
“We are looking at the track, the train signals … human performance, to try and understand the factors that led to this,” said Robert Sumwalt of the National Transportation Safety Board.
o answers came Wednesday from the Amtrak train’s engineer, who hired a lawyer and refused to provide any insight on what went wrong one night earlier, Philadelphia police said.
The unidentified engineer declined to make a statement about the wreck.
Among those killed was a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman heading for his Far Rockaway home while on leave from the Annapolis school.
Queens kid Justin Zemser, 20, was appointed to the Naval Academy after his 2013 graduation from the Hurricane Sandy-damaged Channel View School.
A second victim was identified as Jim Gaines, 48, of Plainsboro, N.J., a video software architect with The Associated Press. The married father of two was coming home from a business meeting in Washington when he was killed.
Among the still missing hours after the derailment was Rachel Jacobs, 39, the CEO of the company ApprenNet and a rider on the train.
“We are just frantic, waiting to hear news from my daughter,” said her mom Gilda told the Daily News.
The train’s black box was found and turned over to analysts in hopes of discovering what went wrong Tuesday night as the engine and its seven cars were scattered across the tracks.
The data recorder should provide investigators with details on the train’s speed, whether the brakes were ever applied or if the horn was sounded before the accident.
Authorities confirmed they were still trying to locate an unspecified number of the 238 passengers and five crew members traveling from Washington to Penn Station in Manhattan.
“We are searching every (train) car, every inch, to find or locate individuals who might be on that train,” said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. “We will not cease our efforts until we are absolutely sure that we have gone through every vehicle.
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