amtrak train crash near philadelphia. the information is scant, the details we have heard are not good. several people appear to be injured. and we are trying to figure out more. stand by as we try to get the latest news update. tonight former new black panther leader says baltimore police had it coming. >> the police officers that are killing us are the real problem. >> the war on cops new fbi statistics show a -- this is a fox news alert, we are still here tonight as we investigate what has happened near philadelphia as an amtrak train has crashes. the associated press is reporting that it is train 188. traveling from washington, d.c., up to new york city on tuesday night when it crashed. these trains go all the time the amtrak the acela. this is a commonly travelled

route, i'm sure this train has done this route many many times before. as we see the pictures together we're looking at it as you are for the very first time or one of them. as you can see the flashlights of what appear to be the first responders on scene, trying to get inside of these train cars which is -- have clearly been derailed. the information that we have right now, and please bear in mind that as we get breaking news in a situation like this it often turns out to be incorrect, but what we are hearing right now, is that the front of the train was going into a turn when it began to shake. an employee who works for the associated press. don't know if it was a journalist or an employee of the ap was on the train, and said the train did go off the tracks. one assumes he or she meant that is what caused the crash, as opposed to something happened and then afterward, the train went off the tracks as you can see here. you can see one car on its side

another car right behind it. can't see ambulances in this particular shot here it does appear to be some emergency first responders on the scene. and news helicopters have gotten to the scene. there are people tweeting out photos of the ehaven'ts and the inside of the train. and we can see that there are first responders on the scene, they appear to be firefighters and you can see passengers with bloody limbs. bloody legs in one particular picture that we are seeing. still alive, there's no fatalities from the pictures that i've seen. just two that have been tweeted out online it's very early, and sao often when you see a disaster like this there are fatalities we hope that is not the case here tonight. we are talking to amtrak trying to get the latest information. we hope to have something for you in a moment. they will obviously be updating this situation, which appears grave at this hour.

this is a commonly travelled route, you can take the amtrak train north, most of them run virtually every hour on the hour and it is about a four hour journey. a little bit more depending on the train you take from d.c. up to new york this happened just near philadelphia is all we're being told do not know. we're being told in philadelphia. in philadelphia although we'll find out more on the location. the police are swarming it's called the port richmond area if you're familiar with that terrain, that's where the crash occurred. they're telling people they need to get back. a former congressman, patrick murphy was on the train, he's the one tweeting out these photos of the firefighters helping people in the wreckage. we're going to try to reach out to him and see if he can give us information on what he observed other than the train was going into a turn when it began to shaks. the latest information is that

several people appear to be injured, and trace gallagher is live with our breaking newsroom with more on this, trace? >> the number we're getting is 50 we talked to amtrak they are slammed right now, trying to get information out, the reason first responders are not on scene yet, this happened just a short time ago, the helicopters were able to get up in the air before the first responders got onscene. the train, some of the passengers said started to shake before it went off. we have seen a number of these types of derailments before usually more times than not, it's because the train hit something on the track, some kind of a truck or car that got on the track. in this case we don't see any indication there, we see the first signs of first responders. they're trying to triage they will go through and get the passengers out, and just like they do in a mash unit they will triage them, the worst injured to the lesser injured, they will treat them as follows, these amtrak trains and this one

in particular. you and i have been on a number of times, they are designed to go off the rails when they hit sothey're not designed to coil up like an accordion, the best scenario is for these things to scatter to go off the tracks and that way people stand a much better chance of survival. it's normally the front cars the ones that are closest to any impact closest to the actual derailment are the hardest impacted. in this case it's impossible for us to tell the latest information we have are between 8 and 9 cars actually derailed and up to 50 passengers have been injured. we have not yet heard of any fatalities keep in mind this is very early in the game. they are just now shining spotlights as you can see, going through each train. train by train trying to figure out who is injured and who is left on board these trains. we have seen a number of twitter posts from passengers on the trains they have given some

kind of indication that there was no collision, just a shaking and then suddenly off the rails it went. if you look there at that first car, it appears to be some type of twisted metal indicating there may have been more to this than we're being told. the associated press, kyw from philadelphia has not given us a great deal of information about what exactly happened. as we get more we can get a much better idea of the genesis of this impact on the train from d.c. to new york making a turn in philadelphia. >> more coming in now, we hear there were potentially up to 250 people on board. trace's numbers were up to 50 injured, it's so hard to tell in the initial moments after something like this that's all we know right now. the reports suggest there was no collision surfed by this train. according to the initial reports, the local law

enforcement is describing this as a very active scene. that according to buzz feed which has spoken with the philadelphia police dispatcher who has confirmed the train derailed at 10:00 p.m. called it an active scene, reporting she did not know how many people were injured or if there were fatalities. all we have seen so far in terms of the pictures ourselves have been two former congressmen who show injuries bloody legs folks who have injuries on their legs they appear to be okay. the people appear to be okay they are just bleeding from their legs as you can imagine. they have many of those injures in a scene like this it appears chaotic from the aerial shot. we are certain first responders are on the scene and must be hand elling this. this is what they do you see some stretchers pulled away. the one with a spotlight does not have a person on it as it lights up you can see the

famous jackets that the firefighters wear as they run toward the danger as opposed to away from it. men and women in blue trying to save lives as they are charged with doing and do every day and every city in this country. that appears to be the first train of the car on the overhead shot you can see there are several more trains right behind it although we couldn't see exactly how many were flipped on their sides. if there's any good news in this, this train did not collide with something. you do not see the crush of metal on the first train that you sometimes do when you have two trains that have collided when they go off the tracks. although what are we seeing here. i can't see, the screen is too small, it looks like twisted metal. i'm not able to make it out. we're trying to get more information for you, folks. bear with us as the first responders are busy doing what

they are supposed to be doing. all we have right now is the picture. and the picture is not good. trace, what do we know? >> we also have we're learning this is 188. that's the train number supposed to get into penn station at 10:35, there are people that may not realize the accident has happened who may be waiting for loved ones or friends to arrive at penn station this train. you can see there, we've been told there was no collision, but boy the train on the top part of your screen the car on the top part of your screen certainly looks like it impacted something, you can see that one appears to be where the most focus seems to be right now. there are first responders up and down the tracks and the trains that derailed. the ones at the front there, it seems, as kyw seems to pan out. that seems to be the buzz of activity clearly looking for

anybody who may be trapped in the wreckage right now. the numbers we have very early, that 50 people were injured, really there's no way to tell at this point in time because it's so early in the game. you have a couple different views here one from a little further off, and one off on the left of your screen focused on the actual collision impact area we're working to get ahold of amtrak to get you more information, as we do we'll bring it to you. >> that is obviously a twisted train car. now we're going to go into our fox affiliate in philadelphia who has live coverage of the breaking news. take a listen. >> they could have hit something else out there, we don't know what we're looking at. we have been checking the amtrak website, we have not been able to reach them obviously for them as well this is an emergency situation. this is what we're seeing this train, train 188, traveling from

washington, d.c. to new york city there's a service disruption. that's what you're looking at. certainly that is an understatement. it's more than a service disruption. that is currently what is on the amtrak website. if you were to look for your frnd or family on this train to see what's going on. that's all you're going to find is that there's a service disruption. >> service disruption. we're still awaiting word from amtrak itself to see what happened. that is the least of amtrak's concerns it's the least of transportation officials concerns. how do we find all these survivors in the dark how do we get them the help they need immediately, and how do they secure -- >> you can see those flashlights working overdrive. they are trying to see all the people they can, whether people are conscious or not conscious. we saw the tweet from patrick murphy he's okay. he's trying to help.

this is the picture i've talked about, we've sleep it to you. former pennsylvania congressman patrick murphy was on that train. he's okay. he's asked to pray for these people. the train is turned on its side people are in need of help patrick murphy the former congressman was talking about please pray for these people i'm helping, this is a difficult situation. i can't see how many people are on that particular car. >> we don't know which car he's in either. that's the thing. >> we get a little wider view here. >> there's buildings. >> that looks like more of an older building or a something. it doesn't look like anything residential, at least from this vantage point as of now. >> if you see -- this might be -- if you see tarps out there, what they do in these types of situations they set up

a triage area. they're going to put people on various tarps, this person needs help immediately right now, critical whatever the situation is on this one. this person is in this condition. they're roughed up but they're going to be okay they're going to go down that line the first responders will help the individuals that need help the most. depending on the layout of the triage area, doesn't look like that's what it is right there. you see all the flashlights going on looking around looking into every nook and cranny trying to find whoever it is who needs help right now. and again, it doesn't help that this happened at night. it's dark out there, hard to see, i won't reiterate that we are fortunate that we're not in the middle of some type of thunderstorm. >> absolutely the weather is at least cooperative there. you can see there, a little more light, there's a big spotlight from something in the air. it looks like an old factory in

that area. they continue to look for survivors, if anyone else needs help we're going to stay on top of this situation. we have bruce gordon on the way, we hope he's there. we can check in with him, to find out what kind of area is this how close is it to any residences in case you've been tuning in you're watching -- this train was going from washington, d.c. to new york city. and we understand there could be as many as 240 people on this train. reports of at least 50 people injured, and again, police are telling us that if you live in that area and you want to help don't do that this is not safe they don't want anyone to come out to this area they're going to secure this area. we know you want to help it's a natural instinct to help this is not what they want from you at this time. we get a closer zoom in here it doesn't look like it's one of the cars. looks like one of the cars turned over there. >> bruce gordon is right now on the phone, i know that you've been heading to the scene, and

you've been listening to all of this unfold what are you seeing what do you know? >> it's an incredible scene out here we're on the 2200 block of east butler street right next to the conrail frankford junction yard the sign says safety is our first priority. it's an incredible scene of police and firefighters an army of both i'm watching right now, a couple firefighters drag a gurney up to the area where the crash has no doubt occurred. i spoke by phone a couple minutes ago, with former bucks county congressman patrick murphy he did not want to speculate in terms of the extent of the damage and the injuries and so forth, he did say it looks very bad. the photos that we've undoubtedly shared with viewers so far, one in particular, showing the dining car at a 45 degree angle. a number of folks inside that car with blood on their forehead and various parts of their bodies everywhere you look there are police officers

firefighters vehicles of all shapes and sizes descending on this area. a fairly large crowd has gathered across the street to see what they can see, from this vantage point is not a heck of a lot. but again the helicopters of overhead we've been showing you the sky fox video. multiple cars overturned. i have travelled that amtrak run on any number of occasions heading from philadelphia to new york and back and forth, it's something that you don't give a lot of thought to the idea of a derailment. something terrible has gone on here tonight. a couple more vehicles passing us right now. another police car coming by right now. and an incredible number of emergency first responders nothing like i've seen before at least in this city. they are continuing to flood into the area there of the frankford junction yard the 2200 block of east butler to see what they can do to help.

>> you pull up to the scene here you see all of this unfolding in front of you. what is the status of getting these people out and to hospitals? >> we have not seen in our particular area a lot of ambulances per say. mostly fire equipment, fire apparatus, and individual police cars. another police van heading by a high rate of speed just now, yet another police van. more of them heading down here these are all police vehicles heading down the -- dune butler street here. one right after another. an incredible number of vehicles it appears that everybody who is available is heading to this area. an incredible scene. an incredible number of emergency first responders are here right now. we don't see ambulances per say, we saw a young man with a white shirt on untucked flapping in

the breeze as he walked. he appeared to be somewhat distraught somewhat dishelved. we saw a woman being escorted. who also appeared to be somewhat shane up being escorted by a couple of police officers, also may have been a passenger, but not abundantly clear. >> i don't know if you're familiar with this part of the city, the shot we're looking at right now from sky fox, it looks like an old factory there. are there homes or residences around this particular area that you know of? >> this immediate area appears to be mostly industrial. at least formerly industrial. let's put it that way, not as much residential in this immediate area. i can tell you as you come in on this amtrak run, the northeast corridor from new york. much of what you see as you come into 30th street station is industrial and post industrial areas of the city into this

area and north philadelphia and so forth. and frankly it's a rather depressing sight as you come into the city many factories have been vacant for many years, this is a similar scenario here in terms of industrial commercial not as much residential, not a neighborhood per say in the immediate vicinity. >> this is tragic -- a tragedy, anyway you cut it bruce. i guess at least there's no row homes being taken out and people being taken out. i don't know how close you can get to the scene, you don't want to get in the way of first responders saving people's lives, what we're looking at from sky fox, let me just tell you, one of these things we have just zoomed in, it's a complete mangled mess of metal. i mean it's twisted to the point that you cannot even recognize it. i'm wondering if that was a train car or it's some other

vehicle or thing that this train slid into there's a lot of action going around there with flashlights. >> it is an understandable question because there are a lot of areas of wrecked cars and abandoned vehicles almost looking like a scrap yard of sorts, i travelled that route on many occasions, on the northeast corridor and so it is understandable that you wouldn't be able to tell whether it was necessary -- part of the action scene or just wrecked vehicles that have been there for weeks, months even year ss. i can tell you, if this is what we think in terms of the amtrak run, if we're coming in from the direction of new york. the train should not have been traveling at all at that high rate of speed. there are multiple stops there, as you head into 30th street station, again, i don't want to get too far ahead of myself. in theory this was toward the

end of the run where the train would be coming in approaching 30th street station before long and is not a particularly high speed run. again, you don't want to do too much speculating there. >> we do know the train was going from d.c. to new york city. and reports we got was that the front of the train started to shake. and then went off the rails. so yeah, you're right, we don't know what rate of speed it was traveling, it is a bit of a mangled mess we're getting a look from sky fox over this particular area and flashlights everywhere as these first responders are looking for anybody who may have survived this particular accident. >> interesting that the former congressman, patrick murphy was on the train and took some incredible photos the one that struck me was in the dining car, which appeared to be about at a 45 degree angle, and that gave you some sense of the

desperation as people were trying to get out the window was clearly broken to the right of the frame. and folks were obviously trying to climb out and help each other, another couple of philadelphia fire department vehicles have come through, special weapons and tactics team trucks have just entered the scene as well. and again police and firefighters in numbers that i have never seen before in this city in 20 plus years of reporting here this is an incredible scene. we see a train to our right coming across an over pass. some sort of a -- it looks like a freight train of some sort it's an interesting and bizarre sight in the midst of all of this. not sure whether you're seeing our pictures or we're still seeing sky fox at this point. >> we have sky fox up bruce. we're trying to shoot what's going on here on butler street. >> appreciate that. we appreciate your insight

there. we'll check back in with you in a few minute ss we hope. we are back to sky fox, looking at a grourntd view. we're back on sky fox, it looks like one car here on its side. and then as lucy talked about, there's something else inside that i don't know if that's another train car or another vehicle vehicle. >> it's hard to tell in the dark of night. just to recap quickly, this was an amtrak train on its way from washington, d.c. to new york when it derailed. there could have been up to 240 people on board, and it could change that up to 50 people have been injured. >> it's rather amazing. whenever there's a train

derailment that involves a passenger train, we're thinking possibly 240 passengers it's going to be a bad outcome. people do not have seat belts on. there are not seat belts. these things can go just the violent impact as you can see is horrific for anybody. if you're in the front of the car and that is the one that derails, everything pushes up against you. you are going to have the impact from whatever happens from the front, and the back of the train, there's inertia going. it's going to keep plowing forward much things are going to happen accordion, i guess i'm using the example of a tractor-trailer jackknifing. there's the end result. in all of his time here bruce gordon -- you see all those first responders it's legions, an army of first responders out

there many in all of this time covering news in the philadelphia area he's never seen a response like this at a site like this in our city. port richmond is the area here. >> understand the magnitude of this situation right now, because bruce, as many of you know he's been around for over 20 years. he's a veteran reporter. to get his insight, i'm sure we will later. bruce has never seen a response like this in 20 years. should speak volumes of the magnitude. i think we have dave on the phone. can you hear me? >> i can all hands on deck. we were at einstein hospital where those four officers were injured and released tonight. ambulances were leaving einstein hospital with their sirens on. all available personnel in this district all headed in that

direction as we speak, i did speak to somebody who was on their way to the scene who told me that no ambulances have left the scene yet, because they're still up in the train trying to treat people on scene, and to stablgize them before they move them off the area into ambulances. we did not see one ambulance anchor the trauma unit section of einstein hospital while we were there, you can see we're going to have to be ready for that we're on our way to the scene right now, again, most of the ambulances we saw were leaving einstein with their lights and sirens on heading in this direction. lots of folks heading this way a couple going beyond me. help all the folks on their train. >> with something of this magnitude happening. there is a triage area as you know. we set up the people who are the

worst, the people who are fearing better than others. they know you who to help out. when these types of. >> you can see a lot of folks being treated right there at the scene, until they can stabilize them. move them off the rail bed then and down to ambulances in that area. it's a difficult area to see what's going on a little bit familiar with that area. i've taken the train in that area back and forth. you know that area right there, it's kind of desolate right through that zone in there, it's a tough area to get to i was told by somebody headed to the scene and getting a report from the scene that no ambulances had yet left the scene, they were still trying to stabilize and get the victims on the train so they could obviously triage them decide what to first. quickly move them away i'm sure every ambulance available in philadelphia is headed that way.

i would imagine private ambulances as well. numerous police cars police vans suvs, headed to the scene, breaking past us on broad street heading to the scene. port richmond as we speak, this is an all hands on deck situation. something they planned for, trained for, we haven't had something like this in the philadelphia area in quite a bit of time. >> you have to train all the time one of the things we can see here is the ladder you see to the right of your screen there's a ladder on the train car, you see it right there zm it goes into one of the windows, they can get into the car itself i mean logistically this is a nightmare to try to find people in mangled metal, the force of the impact can throw people through windows if the car rips open you have people everywhere they have too find all of them if you're unconscious, you're not -- >> i want to bring our viewers up to date on what we are seeing right now, an amtrak train has

crashed outside of philadelphia it was going from washington, d.c. up to new york. it crashed just north of philadelphia. it was described as a loud crash, smoke filled the train, at least 50 people are believed to be hurt. it had an estimated 240 passengers on board. some witnesses saw passengers fly into the air upon the impact. reportedly this train was going into a turn when those on board reported that it started to shake. those we've spoken to say it could have been an indication at high speed it was going off of the rails at that moment. all the hospitals are on stand by right now to triage the wounded. this is not a residential area an employee of the associated press on the train said in his estimation the front of the train looks pretty bad. we can see one train car on its side several more off the tracks at least one of the cars has been very badly mangled and

we do not know what car that was there. there are triage. there is a triage situation at several of the hospitals in the area we are listening to police scanners calling in with all the manpower they have. i'm sorry, i'm getting information in my ear, who do we have on the phone? stand by we're going to go to trace right now with information. trace? >> it comes from new jersey fire one of the systems that monitors traffic from fire departments. what they're saying first responders are not giving information about injuries and deaths all the local agencies will take care of that the report unconfirmed says the train may have hit a csx cargo train, what you missed a little

while ago, the helicopter was zooming in and out, it's trying to stay focused on the triage area and the crumpled train car that looks to be on the left-hand side or the north hand side of the amtrak train. they panned out a little bit. there is a freight train on adjacent tracks on the parallel tracks running next to the amtrak train, they panned a little bit. there appears to be a freight car a little further north that is on the parallel track, and off those tracks it looks like there must be the head of a freight car, we have not confirmed this if you look at the car that is damaged in the front, it didn't just go off the rails. it clearly hit something, because now it is crumpled metal. you can see in some of the cars that are further back there are instagram videos hitting the web, where people are helping people get to the front of the

train saying get to the front get to the front, helping each other get out. there are tweets saying there were injuries in the back. not severe injuries. we saw a short time ago, you know how they do they color code the maps the red is the worst and you go down to yellow and green. the red appeared to have four or five people on it one of the victims was sitting up another one on a stretcher, he's moving his hand. clearly as they're going through this twisted metal you see right there in the center of your screen not very well lit, that is the focus of concern right now, that appears to be the nose of a railcar, and then if you look at the back of it it is nothing more than twisted metal, that seems to be priority one for first responders to get in there and see if there are any survivors for anyone at all inside that railcar. as we get more, we'll bring it to you.

>> please keep the passengers and all emergency personnel in your thoughts. we do not know whether there was a crash from this train into another train, or whether that first car went off of the tracks perhaps at a high speed and simply crashed into the freight train on the neighboring track. we don't know yet, but we are being told the police and firefighters are helping people in the ambulances on the scene, describing some as walking wounded. can you see the ambulance right there, leaving the scene. some of our viewers are sending us tweets as well. one asking a good question where are the fire trucks shining lights on the scene. it seems impossible that they are at the mercy of the simple handheld devices of the firefighters there to rescue those wounded and trapped.

that is very much the case as you can see, they're relying to some extent on the lights of the helicopters, which we believe are news choppers and we do not know what the status is of the emergency vehicles and whether it's even possible for them to get anywhere near what we're told is not a residential area but a formerly industrial area. we are getting a lot of tweets sent out by the folks on the train. she's okay she does not believe the quiet car is looking good. she believes that was toward the front of the train. and this is all speculation at this point because we don't know which car is which. this is coming from folks on board the train describing the chaos, as smoke filled the train. several people were hurts. some people saying they saw

people flying in the ear. as you know you're not seat belted in there's not much to protect you in the case of a crash. we do have -- forgive us because we're following social media as is so often the case in these cases, instagram has had several videos posted. including this video. it purports to be video from inside this train showing people attempting to escape get out of the train. you can see it it's dark the train crash happened in the evening, it happened about 9:30 p.m. eastern time listen. >> come on man. >> i got you. >> keep crawling. >> where am i crawling? >> keep crawling forward. >> that poor man.

trying to go from d.c. to new york city. perhaps trying to get home to his family. finding himself in a devastating train crash on amtrak just outside of philadelphia on train 188, the northeast regional. amtrak describing it as a service disruption but acknowledging to reporters it is aware of this crash. the news that we have right now, is that they were expected to be about 240 people on board this train, the estimates in terms of injuries right now are about 50 as you see, a stretcher with one of the wounded being removed from the area. we do not have any sort of a description of the actual injuries that have taken place. we are told that the area hospitals have been placed on

alert, and are receiving passengers. we're also -- this is just crossing hold on. >> this is from the fire commissioner who is calling this a mass casualty incident. rescue crews have been called in several people appear to be injured, 15 buses have been sent to aid the victims. one person -- okay so various hospitals, i'm trying to get to it folk ss. the ntsb is trying to get information on the derailment. this is according -- it looks like the abc affiliate in the area fire commissioner is calling this a mass casualty incident. we do not have that independently confirmed, we will

work to do that we're taking a look at screen left. you can see them removing the injured. some other folks standing trying to figure out what to do and what the plan is. this is only within an hour or so of the actual incident. we're monitoring the scanners as well the police and emergency scanners. power companies are being called to ground the wires, shut down the power to the affected areas. helicopters are being asked to help with lighting. this may be more than news helicopters, this may be other helicopters in the area going to help. it appears to be all hands on deck as they try to extract the living and perhaps wounded from the trains. we saw six cars overturned we have heard reports of 8 to 9 train cars off the tracks one

appears to be very badly mangled. the first responders were there examining the wreckage. at least one car rolled over entirely on its side. we're told if you know this area that the train derailed at frankford avenue and wheatchief lane. it was going into a turn when it shook, according to one of the passengers when it began shaking. we are told the front of the train looks pretty bad. that is as much as we know other than the philly fire department is begging people to keep the passengers in their prayers. we have spoken to several hospitals, one has gotten back to us. no patients yet, that is one of the area hospitals. clear that is going to change. there hasn't been a direct

report of that. can you see we had earlier, there was a freight train running parallel to this passenger train, something that many of us have been on many times on amtrak taking folks from d.c. to new york. it's dark 9:30 at night, the train goes off the rails somehow. we're trying -- there's a reporter on the scene now who we're going to talk to and listen in. >> at least 60 police cars parked up and down this street as we came up the block right here we're at wheatchief and frankford. we see gurneys and police personnel and fire personnel heading up the block here we're about a block and a half from the actual scene, this is exactly what's going on here. you can tell, we have lots of police personnel, fire personnel on scene here this is at wheatchief and frankford. helicopters overhead people

coming to the scene here and being told to move away from the scene. we have september de buses here now, loaded with emergency personnel, i assume they're going to be taken into that area several ambulances and buses with police personnel on board, as they bring as much police and fire personnel here as they can to help out with this situation. dozens of police officers here trying to move vehicles into that area right now, wheatchief and frankford right here this happened in the 2,000 block of wheatchief from what we were told originally on this. we believe 188. lots of police activity here lots of fire department and police activity on the corner. >> one of the things we're seeing there. you may have touched on it listening to my producer and stuff. that septa bus. septa's also helping out with all of this and bringing in first responders? >> no doubt about it they're bringing first responders into

the scene here on buses, septa buses. there are police officers on there, other police and fire personnel. several buses were headed to the scene as we came up again with police officers on board. with septa personnel. everybody trying to help out here on the scene. and lend whatever hand they can, we are about a block and a half from the actual derailment scene. can't see much past the police line right here lots of personnel, lots of heavy equipment, lots of firefighting equipment, up and down this entire block here. >> you know, dave, bruce has been on the phone, and he's been on the scene there, not far from you, i guess, he's mentioned he's never seen anything like this response in all of his years in philadelphia. i know you've been around for a long time and can you give us your insight as to the magnitude of what you're seeing out there? >> well let me say this the closest thing to this recently was the building collapse on market street at 22nd and market

a couple years ago, in which six people died. all people on their hands and knees digging, trying to do that rescuing the victims, trying to release them from the trapped rubble. there are hundreds of police and fire personnel here gathering at this intersection. this is kind of an unofficial command post i would assume right here and again, trying to do everything i can, i have not seen an ambulance leave this area there are five parked right here lights glaring. you know personnel waiting to remove folks from the train. >> certainly, we just understand that philly fire commissioner is calling this a mass casualty incident. we've been telling people that you know hey, philly police have been saying do not go to the scene, lit the first responders do their work and we

have seen that triage area there, we understand they've been getting a lot of people from that tree an area to ambulances everyone out of there toward the hospital. >> i'm having trouble hearing you, if you're asking me about triage units and things like that i was at einstein hospital before i came over here there were ambulances leaving the hospital with their lights and sirens on headed to this scene, i did not see any ambulances headed into the scene. we saw a lot of police and fire personnel headed here. this is sort of a chaotic scene, a lot of police personnel on the ground right now, directing emergency personnel up toward the crash sight so they can begin removing people and things like that. some spectators gathered on the street corners as well. police are doing everything they can to keep them back. basically trying to keep this area clear, when they do try to move people out of here that are injured from this train,

they may be able to get them out of here more quickly. i had not seen any ambulances arrive at einstein's trauma unit trying to get them medical attention. i'm assuming they're triaging people here on the scene, trying to give everyone the best care they can. >> they have to stabilize them. i know it's really loud where you are, you have sirens choppers over head and all kinds of noise from people doing their jobs right there. have you been able at all to talk to any first responders that have been at the scene? >> i attempted to do that and was quick letter rebuffed by the police officers who do not want anyone in the street at this point. they are amassing police officers here i'm assuming to go in and help with the rescue efforts, they don't want anyone interfering, including the media, talc me to step back. it's a situation right now, where they're doing the best they can to get folks into this

area and moving in this area. so they can do the best job they can to help the folks on board that train. >> i don't you are to see the actual trains we've been seeing some stuff from sky fox. is there anyway that you can see how many cars are on their side or how many cars were on this train? >> i'm not close enough to be able to give you that perspective at all. i'm on the street probably a block and a half from the railroad line there. we're back a ways where police are keeping us as they keep the media in this section here. not wanting us to get in the way of what's going on down there. i've not been able to get a clear look on the tracks i can see the overheadlines from where i am i'm not that far from what i'm talking about, i have not seen any other officials, the mayor, the police commissioner or fire commissioner yet. we will hear from them and get

some info. >> when you were getting set up i know you just arrived, we saw mayor nutter there, i think i saw commissioner ramsey off in the background as well. as you well know you covered the four officers that were hit by a car earlier today, they did a news conference there. and a few hours later, this happened. it's just unbelievable in philadelphia. >> no doubt about if again, the only thing i can compare this response to is the response at 22nd and market when the building collapsed a couple years ago. you'll see another septa bus, another septa bus to our right here being backed in with police personnel in the area right here again trying to get as many folks now, we have another ambulance arriving to our right heading into the scene. they're getting emergency medical folks here trying to keep these streets open here to let ambulances get in here so they can remove folks once they

get them off the railroad crossing and down here to this area. >> just an incredible scene as we're seeing a lot of ground -- >> i think you're seeing as well. we have sky fox. i'm going to get back to you in a minute. we're going to check in with you in a minute. i understand we have a railroad reconstructionist expert on the phone. i hope you can hear me, i'm sure it's speculation, any idea what might have happened here? >> i've heard reports that there may have been an impact with a csx freight train of some type. we don't know any details of that we have reports of significant damage to the front end of the passenger train. and one of the only things that would be likely to cause that would be impact with something very substantial most likely another train. >> something like that happens, if -- and i understand you're just hearing these things we don't know if it's factual as of

yet. if an impact like that what kind of force are we talking about? >> we're talking enough force to derail an 8 to 10 car train, possibly the entire train. a lot more force than if you collided two automobiles. the amount of weight and momentum is unbelievable. >> i would -- this is exactly what you're seeing i'm not sure robert and again, for people who are joining us you are a railroad accident reconstructionist, if you've seen our video from sky fox, have you seen it at all? >> yes. >> you've seen what we've all been looking at which looks like a bunch of twisted metal and wreckage. we don't know whether some of that is the train, whether it's something the train ran into but when you see that knowing your background and what you do to try to figure out what happened what does that seen tell you? >> one of the critical one critical

thing they're going to do is determine whether is overhead wires there. if any of that is down it may be wrapped around the wreckage. it's going to be important to get that deenergized first thing. they're going to be cutting power in order to facilitate the rescue. i expect a rescue of the people inside is going to take most of the night. so i doubt that you're going to have any substantive investigation begin until daylight. >> so robert how would you go about trying to reconstruct this? what would you go through and walk us through that? >> something like this you know knowing what they know

now, it's pretty much all areas you're going to have to determine and want to look at the locomotives to see if any cost is around there. and to look at the stable system to determine what signals each train crew prior to impact. >> and if you're just joining us, we have had a plane crash of the passenger train that was going 188 northeast reek onnal from washington, d.c. up to new york city at about 9:30 this evening. according to reports, about 240 people on board early reports put number of injured around 50. that could change. the latest information from the philly fire department is that temple university hospital is now full they're reporting

extremity fractures and lacerations from the crash. the report there is one report, one report citing the fire commissioner as saying this is a mass casualty incident. there are several reports saying that a mass casualty plan had been activated and that the situation has been upgraded to quote fourth alarm. that is a mass casualty plan. however no official confirmation of any fatalities in this situation we want to bring you now to a passenger on the train, she joins us by phone. beth tell us what happened. >> so it started off as a pretty standard trip outside of philly to new york. i was on the phone with the friend about the time i decided not to get in that car and to get in the next one

the car shifted to the right. and then it the car started tumbling over. there was people tumbling. and like this really slow moving to try to figure out is this going to be it? i mean you know, it kind of came to it was, i mean i just looked around seeing who is injured or trapped. people were looking for exits. the top of the train where it ended up on the side we had to climb up the roof so people were helping each other get up. and people were trapped. underneath chairs and i mean we can start to smell smoke within the car so we helped people to get out. on top of the car we had to jump down. from there, we you know they

walked us to a certain area for people who could walk. i was in my car. people were getting out. looking further up into the business class there weren't as many drivers coming out of it. so there were people i guess on the side car that were also fine but took a while. so there is a mix of people. some people are relatively okay. and people who are covered in blood. currently i'm at a hospital right now. they said some of the people who are not as injured to hospitals and might go to another. >> let me take you back to if you -- what time did you get on the train? >> around 9:08. >> in philadelphia? >> yes. >> how long after that did the train crash? >> i mean it wasn't checking the time but only maybe ten minutes

out. i think not very far out. >> you said you felt it was shifting right and cars were tumbleing over? >> yes. just shifting. suddenly, you can see it was falling to the side by that time there is a chaos of bodies and people and stuff falling on top of you. >> no seat belts? >> no seat belts i ended up the bottom window was in the dirt. people were stuck the train. you're just kind of tumbling. >> so the car you're in tumbled on to its right side. >> yes. >> once it did that did it stop move something >> it stopped moving. as soon as it landed on the side. and i mean maybe there is a lot of chaos going on that kind of stopped. >> was there sound? what were you hearing? >> i don't really hear much.

just more just that slow slide then kind of that slow kind of activity. >> i assume there was panic. >> obviously. people were screaming. the first moment you're just thinking that you're just kind of, it's just like a minor thing then sudden realization it's crashing so you're not sure what is going on. in the car it was dark. you couldn't see what is going on. people started to find their phones and light up with phones. >> did you feel an impact? like the train initially hit something before you felt it shift right? . >> i mean i personally just felt more of a shifting. >> you did not feel impact? >> i did not. when i got off the car, looking up you can see the first two cars were pretty crumbled. like you know crushed cans in

front of us. >> were you in the third car? >> about the third car. >> so before the train shifted to the right, did you feel like it was going fast? did you feel did you have instinct it was going too fast? >> i mean it felt like a regular amtrak kind of thing. >> okay. and in terms of the condition of the victims on the scene? what did you observe? >> there were people that were very injured and -- people just had covered p dust some dust and cuts. some people have broken arms. i was with the crew that got

out. so maybe saw a lot of emf going back in for people. >> how long to see emergency first responders? >> it was a few minutes. we weren't sure how to get out of the car. and then we're sitting on top of it to decide how to get back. >> are you okay? >> i'm in the hospital getting my temperature checked but i'm fine. >> are you familiar with this ground? do you know the train is turning at the time it crashed? this is taken relatively often.

so we're getting conflicting. the mass plan has been activated. we haven't heard of any fatalities do you know whether there have been been? i >> can't confirm that. all i can say is that the two cars in front of me sustained a lot more damage and i didn't see any survivors coming out. >> what did you see in terms of first responders around those cars? >> i mean we saw some like one kind of went down the side of the car. we started to see some firemen and you know police officers i mean, then they came back. because there are other things too. there is there is live wires around. >> can i stand you by? we're going to pause to let our

viewers join us at 11:00. just pause i appreciate this greatly. you're helping a lot of people understand what happened. >> okay. >> this is a fox news alert. as you know an amtrak train headed to new york city from washington, d.c. has crashed in philadelphia this evening. several people appear to be injured are injured we've seen that it was train 188. that left washington, d.c. earlier tonight the front of the train going into a turn. when it shook. eye witnesses on the scene, and those on board say the front looked pretty bad there is one person working for the associated press was quoted an ap report as saying he saw, quote some people mangled up. we have no confirmed reports of fatalities, however, we're being told