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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Philadelphia Train Derailment. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 13, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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


[12:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to have much more. CNN's live special coverage of this train derailment begins right now with "Legal View" and Ashleigh Banfield.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, everybody. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to our breaking news here on LEGAL VIEW.

It's now been more than 14 hours since a horrifying crash on the busiest rail line in North America, and the effects of this disaster are much more apparent than the cause is, yet. Chief among those affects the human toll. Six people from the 243 who were on board an Amtrak train that was bound from Washington, D.C., to New York City, those people dying from their injuries sustained. Their names not yet released, but we do know that one of them was a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland. His name, too, at this point being withheld. But the academy says he was on his way home to visit family. More than 200 people have been treated at various hospitals, many of them have been released, but at this hour, eight of them are still in critical condition we are told. All seven cars from Amtrak's northeast regional train number 188, along with the engine, derailed from those tracks, creating what Philadelphia's mayor calls an absolute disastrous mess.

Want to take you inside one of those toppled and mangled cars by a cell phone video on Instagram.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got you, OK? OK. Keep crawling, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's my phone (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crawl forward, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep crawling. Keep crawling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: It goes without saying that no trains at this point are moving in this corridor between Philadelphia and New York for the foreseeable future. And that brings an absolute mess of a different kind for so many millions of travelers because on a normal day, three times as many people travel this route on Amtrak as on airplanes. My colleague, Erin McLaughlin, joins me live now from this location.

Clearly one of the most important issues of this story, before we go any further is, are there still people on board those mangled cars? Do we know anything more?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Ashleigh. And right now what authorities are saying in that press conference that happened just a short while ago is they don't know how many are potentially unaccounted for right now. And that's because of the nature of the way people board trains. There's a train manifest. They have that. But they're not sure if everyone who's on that manifest actually boarded the train. They're also trying to cross-check hospital records as well. They said it's a very detailed, very meticulous process that's going to take them some time.

BANFIELD: Yes, and, of course, this was just after a station. So whomever boarded that station may not have actually been swiped in electronically. Maybe that person missed the train. Maybe that person may have been treated, walked away from a hospital, maybe never got to a hospital.

MCLAUGHLIN: Absolutely. And that's one of the primary things that authorities say they're trying to get to the bottom of.

BANFIELD: So what did the mayor say effectively? I mean one of the first things that stands out is how little information we actually know at this early stage.

MCLAUGHLIN: Yes. Right now the focus is very much on this investigation. We know that seven representatives from the NTSB arrived at the small hours of this morning, more are on their way, and they're looking at any number of factors from the conditions of the tracks, to the equipment, to human performance. We know that they're interviewing the train conductor. The train conductor was actually injured, we understand. He was treated at a medical facility and police are questioning him now.

They're also looking at the black box. That very important recorder that was on the train. They're analyzing it right now. They hope to have the results by the end of the afternoon. We also understand is there was a camera on the front of the train as well. That hopefully will give them a clearer picture as to how this happened.

BANFIELD: That's one of the most fascinating issues is that they mentioned the event recorders, one of them they talked about being this camera. And whether they release it publicly or not, certainly is - hopefully will provide some help to them.

We were both watching as the mayor gathered with so many different agencies that are involved and it was interesting, not only what the mayor is saying, it's amazing how much we don't know, but he certainly did tells us exactly where they're going. Have a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA: Whatever is comparable as we know it, often referred to as a black box, that has been recovered. It is now in the Amtrak operations center in Delaware for analysis. We have no information from that particular device at all because it is currently being analyzed by the experts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: It was so interesting to hear them talk about all of the different factors at this point that could play into this. The speed, the brakes, the throttle, the horn and the bell also being an issue that they need to investigate.

MCLAUGHLIN: Absolutely. And authorities are saying right now, one of the main focuses is on that black box we just heard the mayor talk about.

[12:05:04] BANFIELD: Yes.

MCLAUGHLIN: Again, they're hoping for a successful download of all that data by the end of the afternoon so they could come out and give us some more information hopefully.

BANFIELD: All right. Erin McLaughlin doing the live work for us here on-site.

I also want to call in a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, John Goglia (ph), who knows a thing or two about how you tackle what has been called just an extreme mess here.

John, can you hear me OK?

JOHN GOGLIA, FORMER NTSB MEMBER: Yes, I can.

BANFIELD: All right, John, so it's very hard for reporters here, there are dozens upon dozens of us here, to get a beat on this. I myself got a chance to go up right to the track level, right before that bend. And, look, I'm no investigator but it seemed like things were pretty clear going into that bend. From an investigator's standpoint, where do you begin when you come upon the scene like this and daylight breaks? Where do you even begin to find out how this happened and whether there are still people who are trapped?

GOGLIA: Well, of course, the rescue and recovery belongs to the jurisdiction and the coroner. So the NTSB's role is secondary to them until the site is declared clear.

But even while they're still recovering passengers or rescuing or recovering remains, the NTSB people are working. They - they'll be walking the track looking for obvious signs of problems. They'll be looking at the wheels on the overturned trains. They'll be looking for any of the obvious events that have occurred in previous accidents just to get a handle on where they're going to attack the problem of finding the cause later on in the day and days to come. So the preliminary walk-through, in fact, Member Sumwalt (ph) mentioned they, that they did a very detailed walk through the accident site with their investigators just looking at the - essentially the lay of the land to try to map out what they're going to do next. The recorders are going to help them map out that future work as well

because if the train was traveling at an excessive speed, that will turn the direction of the investigation in one direction. If the train wasn't operating in excessive speed, then they're going to be focusing on the other factors, like tracks and wheels, to see the - to see if they can determine the cause.

BANFIELD: Yes. Yes. And as Erin just reported, that's going to take until - we're told by the NTSB this afternoon where they'll be able to download that information from the black box that was retrieved. My question is, you know, since we still don't have an accurate account of who just might be missing and who might still be in that wreckage, does the NTSB, at least, are you on the site? Would they - would the investigators be working at least in the background watching as they try to get through some of this tangled wreckage, perhaps cutting iron and changing the integrity of the way this forensic scene exists right now?

GOGLIA: Of course they are. You know the - you saw the pictures of the cranes being brought in. There will be an NTSB person right there watching all those events unfold and actually, depending upon what happens, might actually stop the lifting or - since there's no clear- cut person trapped there, if it would, it would change everything. So if they're just lifting the car, the NTSB folks will be there to take a - watch that and to see what pieces and any obvious damage that may indicate track failure, for example.

BANFIELD: Yes. What - at this point, how much information would we be able to glean from that forward-facing camera that we just learned of in this latest news conference?

GOGLIA: Well, of course, the camera's going to have a pretty clear shot of the tracks. 9:00 at night it wasn't exactly bright and sunny, so there will be some limitation on it. But it's clearly going to tell us the signals if they were working, it's going to tell us if there was a broken rail, obviously broken rail, you know, that will be difficult but it is possible, or if the tracks were fouled, which means there's something laying across the tracks that doesn't belong there. So there are some clues that will come from the video camera even though it's nighttime.

BANFIELD: John, I know every incident is different and I can't begin to even put this on the scale of other train disasters, but do you have any idea how long it could take these investigators and of course the recovery teams to be able to do their work and then ultimately return this extraordinarily busy corridor to regular service?

GOGLIA: Once all the victims are recovered from the wreckage and the NTSB does their preliminary work, the track could be released tomorrow morning. Now what that means is, Amtrak will have these crews that will come in to pick up all these cars, move them out of the way, pick up the track. They are very, very efficient at what they do. They could have this track back in service in a couple of days easily.

[12:10:06] It may not be up to, you know, there's some - when you replace track, you restrict the speed on it for a period of time. So it may not be the fastest track in the world, but they'll have it back in - in a couple of days after it's released, which should be probably tomorrow.

BANFIELD: Which is fascinating, especially given the fact this is the busiest corridor, you know, in the country, this Northeast Corridor, for travel.

John Goglia, thank you for your time. Thank you for your insight. We appreciate it.

GOGLIA: Thank you for having me.

BANFIELD: Just within the past couple of minutes, the president, actually, has weighed in. President Obama saying in his words now, "this is a tragedy that touches us all." I want to read a little bit more of his written statement if you'll permit me. "Along with Americans across our country, Michelle and I we're shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the derailment aboard Amtrak Train 188. Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love - a city of neighbors and neighbors - and that spirt of loving-kindness was reaffirmed last night as hundreds of first responders and passengers lent a hand to their fellow human beings in need." Again, that from the president of the United States.

Coming up next, we're going to hear directly from those who were on board, the survivors of this terrible train crash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage here in Philadelphia of the train derailment.

I've got some news I want to bring you from Washington, D.C. This is from one of our senators. In fact, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, Bob Menendez, releasing a statement about this crash and saying "it is personal." And I'm going to explain why. Quote, "this hits especially close to home. There was a period of time last night when I didn't know the whereabouts of my son who was scheduled to be on an Amtrak back to New Jersey and later found out that he was on the next train and safe. Unfortunately, many New Jersey families this morning aren't as fortunate as they searched for loved ones and answers." That coming from Senator Bob Menendez, saying that his son was scheduled to be on a train and ended up on the next one after this crashed train.

[12:15:17] And you probably heard by now, six people dead. That's the count right now. But we are awaiting to find out about those who aren't accounted for. Two hundred other people were hurt after this train derailed right after a stop in Philadelphia. Crash investigators have told us they have retrieved that all-important black box and that hopefully that's going to help them find out what caused this train's engine and all seven of its cars to leave the tracks.

People who lived through this disaster are still understandably shaken up. I want you to watch this. This is what first responders saw and heard when they first arrived on the scene. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep crawling, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where am I crawling to?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crawl forward, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep crawling. Keep crawling and push (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep crawling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Luckily, like I'm still here. I'm still walking. I - I got really lucky. So I figured I would do my best to help because I saw everyone - I could see the blood on people's faces. They can't move.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had to actually climb out the top of the window to get out. There was people next to me, a woman was stuck underneath some seats, helping another woman out who was there. I mean some people were helping. Some people were looking for the exits.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were just on the train and all of a sudden it started to shake and we were in the front seat and this huge red suitcase just came flying at me. Our train was actually on its side, so it pushed me on to the side of the train.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a level three mass casualty incident, which means that 18 medic units were brought on scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And we are live at the location where those survivors ended up. Just behind me is the scene of that derailment. And on the phone with me, one of the passengers who survived. A woman named Janna D'Ambrisi.

Janna, can you hear me?

JANNA D'AMBRISI, SURVIVED DERAILMENT: Yes, I can hear you.

BANFIELD: Janna, can you just walk through for me what your experience was before that crash happened and just take me through it as you remember it?

D'AMBRISI: Sure. I was in the second to last car sitting on the right side of the train in an aisle seat. I was reading my book, and everything seemed to be normal. I didn't notice that anything was unusual until it felt like we were speeding up around the curve. I'm not sure if we were actually going around a curve or if maybe we were experiencing whiplash since the other cars in front of us were derailing at the time. But you could feel a jolt and it was immediately obvious that we had derailed to the right of the tracks.

So people were screaming. We were thrown to the right side of the train. So I was squished against the girl in the window seat next to me. And people on the other side of the aisle started falling on top of us and above us into the luggage rack because the train had started to tilt in that direction.

So someone's leg hit the side of my head and I just kind of held on to the leg and tried to duck down and take cover if I could, just sort of praying that the train would stop. We had a lot of forward momentum, so we were going for quite a while. I didn't know if we were going to flip over or if glass was going to start to break as we hit the ground, but thank God we never hit our side. We ended in a tilt. The train finally stopped.

It was a lot of smoke or maybe what was dust in the air. And everyone was slowly getting up very shaken, screaming, saying are you OK, are you OK? I could tell right away that I was OK. I wasn't injured. So I was checking on everybody near me.

There was luggage everywhere. The seats on the other side of the aisle became dislodged. I don't know if they can spin, but some of them were intruding on the center aisle. And there were people on the floor. You couldn't tell if they were hurt or they just had been thrown.

So looking around I heard a loud banging noise coming from where I knew the bathrooms were. So I was stepping around people and over luggage trying to get to this bathroom. I was really dizzy, but I knew I was OK and I wanted to help this person. So I could hear a man inside. He said that the door wouldn't open. He had tried to unlock the lock but the metal must have been bent. So I was pulling on it frantically. I told him I couldn't get it open but hold on. I'd look for help and be back.

[12:20:15] So I went a little further to the point where the last car and the second to last car meet, where I knew there would be an exit. There was somebody from the last car who had found a really large hammer and was trying to open the door over there. I got his attention and he followed me to the bathroom and he started banging. I left to go back to my seat but I saw later that the bathroom door was open so that man was able to get out.

When I got back to my seat, I was disoriented but just trying to help people get up around me, people who were pinned under seats. And then eventually I was thinking, why are we on this train? We should get off. So I was able to find my bag a few rows ahead of us and get my cell phone so I could contact my fiance. And as I was heading towards the real of the train, I was told to hang on for a moment. There was a man in the last car who identified as a police officer, his name was Mike, he was a passenger on the train, and he told us it might not be safe to go on to the tracks yet because I guess that the voltage running through the rails or there were some downed electrical wires around us as well.

So I found a girl in distress. She was younger than me, having, I think, a panic attack. She wasn't injured. Her shoulder was bothering her but she was shaking really badly. So I became her buddy. I tried to calm her down. There were people around me with blood on them. There was blood splattered places. One girl broke her nose and had blood splattered all down her front but she seemed to be able to walk, so she was OK.

And eventually I think there was an Amtrak crew member who told us to exit out of the rear of the last car. And there were other passengers helping people down from the car. So we moved away from the tracks and we could hear sirens of the first responders coming. It didn't take that long for them to get there. But, you know, everyone was just kind of trying to help the people who were injured, who had blood coming out of their heads, their noses, helping to sit down in the dirt away from the rails and also help people who were just really emotionally shaken as well.

There was one man, Andrew, helping everybody off the train and he didn't have any shoes on because he had been lounging comfortably without his shoes when the derailment occurred.

BANFIELD: Oh, my gosh.

D'AMBRISI: So this poor man, for the rest of the night, was stepping on rocks without any shoes on, but he was helping other people off the train even though his back was bothering him himself.

BANFIELD: Probably a lot of debris. That's dangerous. Yes.

D'AMBRISI: So other passengers were really helpful to those who needed it.

We waited by the side of the tracks until first responders came and there were so many of them, which was wonderful. They attended immediately to those who had head injuries and other injuries.

We waited by the side of the tracks for quite a while. We weren't sure where to go. They were trying to move us away from the live wires so that nobody would get hurt. Eventually, I think they cut a fence on the other side of the tracks and they had us walk over there carefully.

So I stuck with my buddy, this girl who was emotionally shaken, and we made our way to the street where there were lots of ambulances and fire trucks. We were there for hours, being corralled, and there were people coming out of their homes to help us. Really lovely people offering us bottles of water, their cell phones. If someone had lost a cell phone and needed to contact a loved one. They were even saying we could go inside their house and rest if we needed to. Just really wonderful people.

And we were definitely not in a nice part of town. It was - it was a little scary around there. I didn't want to leave, not knowing where I was going, thinking that as long as I stay with the first responders and the other train passengers, I'll be safe.

BANFIELD: Wow.

D'AMBRISI: And they took a lot of people to the hospital. We waited not knowing where to go.

BANFIELD: Janna. D'AMBRISI: I was hoping someone from Amtrak would show up and tell us, we have Coach buses for you to take you home to New York, which is where we wanted to go. We just wanted to be home.

BANFIELD: Yes.

D'AMBRISI: But eventually we were taken to a school, an elementary school -

[12:25:01] BANFIELD: Yes. Janna, I'm -

D'AMBRISI: And there I met up with - or I was already with two men from New York who had the idea of taking an Uber car all the way back to the city and thank God an angel of a driver actually ended up doing that, to take us all the way back to New York City. I ended up getting back to my apartment at 2:15 in the morning.

BANFIELD: Well, I am so thankful that you're OK and I am so appreciative of your extraordinarily thorough description of that scene. I think that may be the most comprehensive account that I have heard until now. Again, I wish we could meet under different circumstances but I'm so thankful you're OK. Thanks for your time and thanks for telling your story, Janna.

And, of course, Janna's story is different than others because among the unknown number of people that are still unaccounted for is this woman. Her name is Rachel Jacobs and she's the CEO of a Philadelphia tech company called Apprenet (ph). Her colleagues have put out her name and photo. They did that this morning in hopes that someone knows something about her whereabouts or her condition. Ms. Jacobs lives in Manhattan with her husband and her two-year-old son. So if you know anything about it, you can call the Amtrak hotline at 1-800-523-9101, 523-9101, area code 800, if you know anything about her whereabouts.

We are also just getting word of the death of an employee of the Associated Press. He was on that train. We're just learning very few details, but we're going to have more on that right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)