The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Wednesday that a high-speed turn played a part in an Amtrak passenger train derailing in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. But the reasons why the train was traveling so fast through the bend are still a mystery.
Robert Sumwalt, board chair for the NTSB, told reporters on Wednesday evening that the engineer of Northeast Regional Train 188 activated the full emergency-stop braking system just moments before the train derailed. According to a preliminary investigation, the train was traveling 106 miles per hour when the engineer hit the brakes—twice the speed limit.
