Amtrak Derailment: 'Never Seen Anything Like This'

Investigators are sifting through the devastation Wednesday after an Amtrak train traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York City with 238 passengers derailed in Philadelphia Tuesday night.

Authorities say at least six people were killed and dozens more were injured when the cars flew off the rails going around a turn.

The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team to the crash site to investigate what went wrong. Investigators are now saing the train exceeded 100 mph before derailing on curve with 50 mph limit.

Survivors say everything seemed normal until the horrific moment when Train 188 jumped the tracks.

"Basically the train tilted over and rolled," one passenger recalled.

"Suddenly the car just got tossed, then a moment of chaos," another passenger said. "People and things got kind of all kind of tumbled around. The car's dark."

For information on friends or family on Train 188, call
Amtrak's Incident Hotline at 800-523-9101.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter spoke at the crash site, calling the scene unbelievable.

"It is an absolute disastrous mess. Never seen anything like this in my life," he said.

The Federal Railroad Administration reports that the engine of the train and two cars were upright, three were mangled and laying on their sides, and one was nearly on its roof and leaning drastically to the side.

Former Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick Murphy was on the train when it crashed. He said he heard a bang and then felt the train begin to wobble.

"Human nature kicks in. People don't care about anyone. They walked off the train, stepping over people," he said. "The guy next to me was unconscious so I kind of slapped him a little bit and got him up. He was okay."

Amtrak announced late Tuesday that it's canceling all traffic between New York and Philadelphia for the time being, one of the most heavily traveled areas in the nation.