Philadelphia, May 14 (RHC)-- Safety officials say an Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia Tuesday night was traveling at twice the authorized speed. The engineer applied the emergency brakes when the train hit 106 miles per hour just moments before the train went off its tracks.
The locomotive and seven passenger cars derailed, with sections of the train so mangled people had to be rescued with the aid of hydraulic tools. Seven people were killed, and more than 200 were injured.
The engineer driving the Amtrak train has been identified as 32-year-old Brandon Bostian from New York. According to his attorney, Bostian has no recollection of the crash itself and "no explanation" for what happened.