An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, mangling the front of it and injuring several people, some of whom climbed out of windows to get away.

Five killed, 50 injured in train accident

At least two people have been killed and others have been injured after an Amtrak passenger train collided with a backhoe and derailed between New York City and the Philadelphia area, local officials say. James Valles reporting (BNO News)

Chef Eli Kulp’s restaurant High Street on Hudson was named one of Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurants in 2013. He was shuttling between New York and Philadelphia weekly to run his four acclaimed restaurants. In May 2015, his Amtrak train 188 derailed outside of Philadelphia, leaving him paralyzed.

A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday dismissed criminal charges against the driver of the Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia in 2015, killing eight passengers and injuring 200 others. Brandon Bostian, 34, had been facing charges including involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

A Philadelphia judge has ruled that an Amtrak engineer must face a trial for a fatal derailment in 2015.
According to Judge Kathryn Streeter Lewis, charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment have been reinstituted against Brandon Bostian.
Prosecutors added that a previous judge had dismissed the criminal charges.
Judge Thomas Gehret made that decision last September, citing evidence which suggested the derailment was not caused by a criminal act.

The scene after an Amtrak train derailed in Washington state on Monday morning. AP The train that derailed in Washington was going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. The National Transportation Safety Board cited data from an on-board recorder, which showed the train going much too fast. It said it was “too early to tell” why it was going so quickly along a bend.

According to the city district attorney’s office on Tuesday, the Amtrak engineer involved in a derailment that killed eight people and injured 200 others near Philadelphia won’t face criminal charges. Prosecutors said in a statement that they were unable to prove that engineer Brandon Bostian acted irresponsibly when he accelerated the train to 106 mph on a 50 mph curve, which was determined to be the cause of the crash.

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.

Six dead and 140 injured as Amtrak train 188 carrying 243 crashes in Philadelphia – Latest Horrible news 2015

An Amtrak train derailed in northern Vermont on Monday morning while en route from St. Albans, Vermont, to Washington, D.C. At least one car appears to have fallen down an embankment as a result of the derailment, but details on potential injuries are still unknown. One of the first images of the derailment, posted to Twitter by a passenger, appears to show one of the cars down an embankment. The train was traveling at 102 mph in a 50 mph zone around a dangerous curve.