2015 Philadelphia train derailment
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| Date | May 12, 2015 |
|---|---|
| Time | 9:23 p.m. EDT (UTC−4) |
| Location | Port Richmond, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°00′06″N 75°05′37″W / 40.00167°N 75.09361°WCoordinates: 40°00′06″N 75°05′37″W / 40.00167°N 75.09361°W |
| Rail line | Northeast Corridor |
| Operator | Amtrak |
| Type of incident | Derailment |
| Cause | Loss of situational awareness by train engineer |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 (locomotive plus seven cars) |
| Passengers | 238 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Deaths | 8 |
| Injuries | 200+ |
On May 12, 2015, an Amtrak Northeast Regional train from Washington, D.C. bound for New York City derailed and crashed on the Northeast Corridor in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Of 238 passengers and 5 crew on board, 8 were killed and over 200 injured, 11 critically. The train was traveling at 102 mph (164 km/h) in a 50 mph (80 km/h) zone of curved tracks when it derailed.
Some of the passengers had to be extricated from the crashed cars. Many of the passengers and local residents helped first responders during the rescue operation. Five local hospitals treated the injured. The derailment disrupted train service for several days.
The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the derailment was caused by the train's engineer becoming distracted by other radio transmissions and losing situational awareness, and said that it would have been prevented by positive train control, a computerized speed-limiting system that was operational elsewhere on the Northeast Corridor, but whose activation at the crash site had been delayed due to regulatory requirements. The track in question was also not equipped with ATC (automatic train control), an older and simpler system which had been operational for years on the southbound track of the curve at which the derailment occurred, and which also would have limited the train's speed entering the curve. Shortly after the derailment, Amtrak completed ATC installation on the northbound track.
The 2015 crash was the deadliest on the Northeast Corridor since 1987, when 16 people died in a crash near Baltimore.
At about 9:10 p.m. (EDT) on May 12, 2015, Amtrak's northbound Northeast Regional No. 188 departed Philadelphia's 30th Street Station en route from Washington, D.C., to New York City. The train consisted of seven cars hauled by a year-old Amtrak Cities Sprinter (ACS)-64 locomotive, No. 601. The engineer was Brandon Bostian, who had begun working the route a few weeks prior.
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