Did object cause derailment?

THE AMTRAK train that derailed along one of the United States’ busiest tracks may have been struck by an object in the moments before it crashed, investigators say, raising new questions about the deadly accident.

National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said an assistant conductor told investigators that she heard Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian talking over the radio with an engineer for a regional railroad just before the crash.

The regional engineer, who was in the same area as the Amtrak train, said his train had been hit by a rock or some other projectile. The conductor heard Bostian say the same had happened to his Amtrak train, according to Sumwalt.

The windshield of the Amtrak train was shattered in the accident but one area of glass had a breakage pattern that could be consistent with being hit by an object, he said. The FBI is investigating. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority does not yet know what caused the damage to its train that night, said Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman for the agency.

SEPTA trains travelling through the area — including one of the poorest and most violent parts of the city — have had projectiles thrown at them in the past, whether by vandals or teenagers, she said.

The deadly Amtrak wreck has made it clear that despite the train industry’s widespread use of electronic signals, sensors and warning systems, safety still sometimes comes down to the knowledge and experience of the engineer at the controls.

Those skills would have been critical on the curve where the New York-bound train derailed, killing eight and injuring more than 200 in the deadliest US train accident in nearly six years.

Instead of high-tech signals or automatic controls, engineers on that stretch of track have to rely on their familiarity with the route and a printed timetable they carry with them, not unlike engineers a century ago. The engineer of the train has told investigators that he does not recall the moments leading up to Tuesday night’s crash.

The conductor told the NTSB in an interview on Friday that he felt comfortable with the train and was not fatigued, Sumwalt said.

In the minute before the derailment, the Amtrak train accelerated from 112kmh to more than 160kmh, even though the curve where it came off the tracks has a maximum speed of 80kmh.

Experts say the railroad’s signalling system would have slowed the train automatically if it had hit the maximum speed allowed on the line, but older cab-signal and traincontrol systems do not respond to localised speed restrictions.

Investigators are also conducting drug tests.

Bostian’s lawyer has said he was not using drugs or alcohol. Preliminary checks have not found any pre- existing problems with the train, the line or the signals.