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Detailed Examination of the Amtrak Derailment; Press Conference with Mayor Nutter. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 13, 2015 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:27] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go. Breaking news at this hour here on CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Just a head's up, we're watching and waiting for a news conference. It could happen any minute now. We'll be seeing the mayor of the city of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, stepping up behind that podium, briefing us on the latest of what has just been an absolute tragic past couple of hours here, this deadly derailment of this Amtrak train on the busiest rail line in North America. It's train 188. It was headed from Washington, D.C., to New York. It rounded this bend and then just flew off the tracks in Philadelphia, tearing apart its cars and violently catapulting those passengers inside.

I've got some video I want to share with you. This is surveillance video you're about to see here. And look within the spotlighted area because this is what captures those deadly moments there on those tracks. And those lighted cars just whipping by one after another and then disaster strikes. A flash point of terror as the train derails. All 243 people on board are tossed, and the train just crumbles. One passenger says he watched as women were launched into luggage racks. Another sat helpless as people were crushed under a row of seats.

Now, most of these passengers were rushed to hospitals. Some are still unaccounted for. And at least six are dead. Cell phone video showing what it took to escape that mangled train.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here. Hold on. Hold on. Here. Go, go, go, go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should I just get out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you help me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: My goodness. People asking for help there. While some people were prying open doors just to escape, others crawled to safety through jagged metal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I - I got you, OK? OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep crawling, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where am I crawling to?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just crawl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crawl forward, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep crawling. Keep crawling. Keep crawling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep crawling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go straight to the scene, to my colleague Ashleigh Banfield, who's been there all morning.

And I know we're waiting for that new conference with Mayor Nutter. I know the NTSB is still there on scene. Are first responders still searching for victims there in the wreckage, Ash?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, CNN'S "LEGAL VIEW": Well, we can only assume yes. And here's why. There's very little information. I think the mayor said it best himself in his last news conference, which was, there are many things we don't know. And the reason is, Brooke, is because they're trying to match manifests. This is not a perfect science on a train. People get on. They may have electronic tickets that weren't scanned yet. It was just a station just prior to this incident. So they just don't know who might have missed the train, who might not have, who might not have had a scanned ticket or a 10 ticket pass. This is a problem. So they're coordinating manifests between the train, the hospitals. And then, believe it or not, they're actually just appealing to the public, call us and report in if you're OK. So this is the assumption we're all going under is that we just don't know if there are still people trapped or if they are actually looking for people at that site.

It's just behind me here, Brooke. And I will tell you this. Just at the last news conference, we were told that it was going to take until this afternoon to basically nail down the information from the black box. We were already told that it was sent to the Amtrak operation center in Delaware for that analysis. And now we're being told through the NTSB that it has obtained the data from that black box. And perhaps the upcoming news conference in just minutes is going to actually yield some of that critical information.

In the meantime, there is also this nugget of information from the city officials, the mayor, and the NTSB that held that news conference. And that is that the conductor also was injured, was treated, and was being debriefed. In fact, giving a statement earlier today. So whether that statement is complete or whether there's a lawyer involved now, I don't know, but it will certainly be very telling.

The front-facing camera as well will have information hopefully that will help us sort of debunk what went on. But critical to this, in this investigation, Brooke, will be the track, the signals, the operations, the mechanics, and the human performance, which is now being called the multidisciplinary investigation. They want to know whether speed, brakes, throttle, horn, bells, whether all of those things can tell us what went wrong in and then ultimately out of that bend.

BALDWIN: Yes, I've got some experts coming up to talk to the points you made about the locomotive (INAUDIBLE) data locator that was found, what kind of information can be gleaned from that, and also the camera. As far as the victims go, Ashleigh, I know two victims have been identified. What do we know about them?

[14:05:07] BANFIELD: So we do know the names now. It's always hard to give this information. One of the victims was a Naval Academy midshipman, just 20 years old, Brooke. His name is Justin Zemser. And as I said, he was 20. He was a sophomore at the Naval Academy. He was a member of the sprint (ph) football team in 2014. He was the captain of his high school football team. He was also the president of student council in high school. So, clearly, just a real promising soul lost.

And then also from the Associated Press, we've lost one of our fellow journalists, a video software architect. His name was Jim Gaines, 48 years old, a father of two and he hailed from Plainsboro, New Jersey. And just to that end, the tragic nature of all of those who are lost, and at this point, like you said, it's still six so far and we're hoping that number doesn't increase. But the city officials here and statewide have now asked that all flags be flown at half-staff in honor of what's happened here.

BALDWIN: An absolute tragedy. Our hearts and prayers go out to all these family members and loved ones. Ashleigh Banfield, thank you so much.

Again, we're waiting for that news conference from the mayor of Philadelphia for perhaps some new information based upon what they've found.

Amid the wreckage and the chaos there, you know, it's the stories of the people who survived the crash that are pretty incredible. I want to tell you about one. Some of them described what happened, what went through their minds after that train flew off the tracks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAX HELFMAN, AMTRAK PASSENGER: It kind of still feels like a dream, like how could this happen? You always like read about things or see this on news. It's like, oh, a plane crashes, a train derails, but you never actually think it's going to happen to you. And it did. BETH DAVIDZ, AMTRAK PASSENGER: I think in that moment when I was like

kind of tumbling, I mean I really thought this might be the end. I mean there's no way to know like in the darkness. I mean - so, I mean, you just - being able to taste dirt was lovely because you knew that you were alive and OK. You know, and you can figure out the rest.

JANNA D'AMBRISI, AMTRAK PASSENGER: We felt a jolt. Immediately I could tell the train derailed. We were to the right of the rails. And I was thrown against the girl next to me, against the window. And people from the other side of the aisle started falling on top of us. So somebody's leg hit the side of my head. The rest of her body must have been in the luggage rack above me.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, ANCHOR, CNN'S "NEW DAY": And it happened as a jolt? It happened pretty quickly?

D'AMBRISI: It happened pretty quickly. And I just held on to this leg, and girl next to me, and ducked my head and was just praying, please stop, please stop.

JEREMY WLADIS, AMTRAK PASSENGER: The train just started to shake. And then, I mean, it happened so fast, yet slow enough where, you know, things started flying. Phones -

PEREIRA: You couldn't even brace yourself, really, could you?

WIADIS: At - at one point I did brace myself like this, holding on to the seat and keeping my head ducked low because the train started to roll this way and things were - cell phones were flying, laptops were flying. I didn't even see these two women were catapulted up into the luggage rack.

JOAN HELFMAN, AMTRAK PASSENGER: I saw so many head injuries and, you know, bloody faces. And, you know, people were really injured. They were thrown out of their seats. One girl slammed into, you know, one of the seats. There are a lot of fractures, you know, arms, shoulders, all kinds of fractures. And it was - there was nothing I could do to help. I had nothing except to just talk to the people and try to help them, calm them down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were the serious -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Those are just some of the stories. I'll talk to a paramedic who was there on the scene last night from Temple University EMS in just a second.

Again, we're watching and waiting for the mayor of Philadelphia to hold another news conference to update the public here as crews are just digging through that wreckage here in the daylight hours, searching for those who are still missing.

Plus, we have new surveillance video from moments before the crash. What can these images here - what can they tell investigators?

Stay here. You're watching CNN's special live coverage.

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[14:13:28] BALDWIN: All right, I have some more breaking news here. New information as far as how fast this train was going apparently around the curve as we're showing you live pictures. Again, just a reminder, that we're waiting for this news conference, this briefing from the mayor of Philadelphia.

Here's what we're not learning. That the train, mind you the speed limit around this curve here where you see the yellow on your screen, 50 miles an hour. Apparently the train was believed to have been going over 100-mile-an-hour when it crashed. That's just into us.

Let's talk about it. George Gavalla, a former safety official with the Federal Railroad Administration, is with me. Paul Ginsburg is with me as well. He's a forensic audio expert who's examined recordings for the federal government in multiple high-profile criminal cases.

So, gentlemen, let's just get right to it.

George, first to you. I mean we had heard, obviously, speed could potentially be a factor around that curve, especially when you look at sort of the trajectory of how those train cars flew off those tracks. But when you hear 100 miles an hour in a 50-mile-an-hour speed limit area, your reaction?

GEORGE GAVALLA, FORMER SAFETY OFFICIAL, FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION: That's astounding, particularly on a railroad system like Amtrak that has a train control system in place that's intended to detect over speed and slow the train down.

BALDWIN: Automatically?

GAVALLA: Yes. The first thing that should happen when a locomotive exceeds its authorized speed is there should be a warning signal inside the locomotive cab that tells the locomotive engineer that he needs to slow down - he or she needs to slow down. And if that signal is not acted upon, the system should automatically apply the brakes.

[12:15:08] BALDWIN: So once the warning bells go off, either the engineer hears those warning bells, knowing that the train is going too fast and should physically slow the train down. If not, it should automatically slow. So then knowing that and knowing obviously that perhaps didn't happen, or perhaps it could have been going faster and decreased to 100, I don't know, what questions do you think are being asked of that engineer right now?

GAVALLA: Well, I'd like to have a number of questions answered, not just the performance of the locomotive engineer, but the performance of the safety system, the train control system itself. Was the system disabled on that particular locomotive? Were these warning signals given and not responded to? We don't know the answers to those questions.

BALDWIN: George, stay with me. But, Paul, I want to bring you in. When we talk, too, about this locomotive black box, this locomotive event data recorder, essentially the black box of these trains -

PAUL GINSBERG, FORENSIC AUDIO EXPERT: Right.

BALDWIN: What specifically will investigators, what data will they be able to retrieve?

GINSBERG: OK. The black box for locomotives gives you exact position, speed, GPS location, velocity, and a number of the controls that are in the cab. That is how - how the throttle was set, were the brakes set, did he honk the horn, activate the bell? There's a reverser and a power switch. All of this is recorded along with forward-looking video -

BALDWIN: The camera.

GINSBERG: Along the track.

BALDWIN: Uh-huh.

GINSBERG: And external microphone only. There is no video and there's no audio in the cab of the locomotive. I believe that might have been something negotiated between union and railroads. And here I have a feeling that one of the questions being asked is, what was happening in that cab?

BALDWIN: What was happening in the cab. George, when you look, too, and I don't know if we have these pictures, guys, but when you look at the different train cars and the way some of them flipped or they're on their sides, what does that tell you?

GAVALLA: Actually, I have not had the opportunity to look at those pictures or those videos.

BALDWIN: Then let me move on from that. What else would you want to see? You know we're talking about the safety system. You would want to have some questions answered. Obviously we know they're doing that of the engineer. What else that you have seen, what else strikes you, George?

GAVALLA: Well, just this announcement that you just told me, this information that the train was going 100 miles an hour in a 50-mile- per-hour restricted curve. That's highly, highly unusual.

BALDWIN: Let me stay with you on that. So if, you know, warning bells were going off, because clearly it was, you know, in excess double the speed it should have been, and if the engineer attempts to slow it down, how quickly can one even hit the brakes, so to speak? How quickly can you slow a train down if you're doing 100 miles an hour?

GAVALLA: Well, it takes time, but passenger trains, particularly Amtrak passenger trains, have very aggressive braking systems. So they could slow down much more quickly than, say, a freight train. But it still does take time to slow down from 100 miles per hour certainly. It can take a half a mile.

BALDWIN: I'm just so mindful of all those passengers on board and what that would have felt like for all of them, you know, and then, of course, what happened in those ensuing, horrifying moments.

You're listening to all of this. What else are you thinking?

GINSBERG: I understand that there's surveillance video from perhaps buildings close by. We can use the dimensions of the train cars and the time it takes for each of the cars to pass through the frame to get an accurate idea of what the speed is, in addition to, to corroborate what the flight data - or the locomotive data recorder gives us.

BALDWIN: Right.

Paul Ginsburg, thank you so much. And George Gavalla, I appreciate you.

Again, if you're just joining us, we have learned in a 50-mile-an-hour zone, this train was believed to have been going over 100 miles an hour when it crashed.

We have to get a quick break in. When we come back, we'll talk to two EMTs from Temple University, both of whom were on the scene last night. We'll talk through what injuries they saw when we come back.

You're watching CNN's special live coverage. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

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[14:23:50] BALDWIN: All right, breaking news. Here we go. A press conference with the mayor of the city of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, specifically on just the latest with what's happened as far as this fatal derailment of this Amtrak train, what happened late last night into the wee hours here. Let's take a listen.

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA: Everybody ready?

A couple of brief updates. There will be some new information. There will be a recitation of much of the same information that you've had before.

Again, we continue with the search operation, but there's also a full investigation going on. You saw earlier the National Transportation Board, whose representatives are here, their personnel are on the ground. Again, any information I give you, unless we say that it is confirmed information, is still preliminary. There is an active investigation going on at the site.

As you can see, I'm also joined by Pennsylvania's two senators. In alphabetical order, Senator Bob Casey and Senator Pat Toomey. Chief Inspector Sullivan is here on behalf of the police department. Fire commissioner Derrick Sawyer is here on behalf of the fire department. Sam Phillips, of course, director of Emergency Management Operations for the city. Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison for public safety. Rich Negrin, managing director of deputy mayor for administration and coordination. Desre (ph) Peter (ph) Goodell (ph), director of communications. [14:25:24] We will now announce - I know many of you have reported it,

but we will now confirm that, unfortunately, there are seven individuals who are deceased as a result of the tragedy from last night's train derailment. Again, we have been assisted at an incredible level by Amtrak. Certainly again want to express appreciation to Board Chairman Kashia (ph), as well as the board member from NTSB, Mr. Brumwalt (ph).

We have begun the process. The M.E.'s office, rather, has started the process of notifying next of kin. I do not have any information on names of individuals, and I'm not in a position to release that information in any event. And I don't have it anyway.

We just took another site visit with our two senators. We've given them a full briefing by all agencies at the table, letting them know what they're role and responsibility is, but also we wanted them expressing our appreciation to both of them for being here. We wanted to make sure that they saw the scene as well.

And so first I'm going to ask Sam Phillips to come up. We are still trying to get families' information about their loved ones who may have been on that train and reunify them. After Sam, you'll hear from the two senators. I'll come back with some closing information. And then, as we've been doing, try to give you opportunity for question and answers for anything that we can answer.

Sam.

SAM PHILLIPS, Director Of Emergency Management Operations: Good afternoon.

As we have been saying all day, we are in the process of reconciling several different collections of data points, working with our hospital system, working with our EMS transports, trying to account for those who we would consider walking wounded, those who were able to walk off the scene last night, those who visited our friends and relatives center, which is at 3400 Frankfort Avenue. And, again, coordinating with the medical examiner's office as well.

So we have made really good progress in accounting for the majority of individuals, but we still have folks that we would like to hear from. If you know of somebody who left the scene last night and is doing well, please have them call in to Amtrak's 1-800 number. That's 1-800- 523-9101. Again, 1-800-523-9101. We just want to make sure that we can account for everybody safely. The friends and relatives center here up on Frankfort Avenue has now closed. We've transitioned everything to Amtrak's family assistance center, which is at the Marriott at 12th and Market Street. So that is open as of 2:00 p.m. today.

Thanks.

NUTTER: Before I bring the senators up, let me also recognize Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes, the leader of the American Red Cross here in Philadelphia. Again, one of our partners in any of these efforts. I want to thank her and the American Red Cross. And, of course, the Salvation Army, which has also been on the ground and very helpful. And the great, great folks at Wawa (ph) have made enormous contributions to the first responder personnel with water and a variety of other necessary supplies given the work that they are doing and helping them along in their work.

First up will be Senator Bob Casey, then Senator Pat Toomey and then I'll be back.

Senator.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Thank you very much.

Mayor, thanks very much.

We're here to offer our condolences and our prayers to the families of those who lost loved ones here, as well as to remember and to offer prayers and support to those who are still recovering, those who were injured.

I want to commend the work that the mayor and the city officials, state officials, federal officials who were here, too numerous to name, but we're grateful for the work that they're doing under the most horrific of circumstances.

And finally, Senator Toomey and I, after getting a briefing and a tour, of course want to offer our help in any way that we can to be of assistance today, tomorrow, short term and long term.

[14:30:00] Senator Toomey.

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Thank you, Senator Casey.

The scene is a horrific and heartbreaking scene.