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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  May 13, 2015 9:00am-10:01am PDT

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off the tracks. we just rolled and rolled. >> must of the injuries were musculoskeletal so arms and legs and ribs. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the deadly train derailment in philadelphia kills six and injuries dozens more. the terrifying scene experienced by hundreds, including a former congressman. >> i feel blessed and lucky to be honest to be here. i was able to kiss my wife last night. >> today the focus is on the investigation of the train's black boxes which have been recovered. >> we have a forward-facing video camera that's in the head end of the locomotive the front end of the train, so we will be looking at that. we will be -- the event recorders themselves can give you information about the speed of the train, any brake applications, any throttle applications that the engineer could have made horn bell it can give us a lot. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell in new york following breaking news from the
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scene of the amtrak derailment in philadelphia where the ntsb has investigative go teams on site. right now let's go to former pennsylvania congressman and iraq war veteran patrick murphy. he was on board the amtrak train when it derailed. he's back at the scene today and joins me now. patrick, first of all, how are you doing? >> reporter: i'm okay andrea, thanks for asking. i'm lucky to be here. >> i know that it was an emotional night. you got home and with your wife and family afterwards but this was your neighborhood. this was your childhood neighborhood so let's take it back to last night and when you first knew on the train that something was terribly wrong. >> it was a regular train ride and iia. i was rushing home on that 7:00 train to get home to kiss my kids good night before they fell asleep, and -- and maggie's 8 and jack is 5. it's a regular train. senator tom carper was next to me at the next table over in the cafe cart where there's tables
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and bench seating. he got off in wilmington and we're going and -- and all of a sudden you just felt -- in trenton, felt horrible vibrations and the brakes and then the car, the rail car shifted to the left first and then violently over to the right and derailed and flipped over and that's when everyone that was on my side the left side of the car, basically fell to the other side. >> patrick, were you going particularly fast? can you assess what the speed was because we know there was a curve there. >> yeah. listen, it felt like, you know i didn't feel like they were going excessive. i was working to be honest with you. i had my ear buds in and i was working on my ipad and when that happened, you know i mean, it was violent when it shook over and, in fact i'm like 6'1" about 200 pounds and i was thrown like a rag doll head
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first to the other side of the car, rail car, and -- and you know i just -- when it finally came to a stop i just checked if i still had my arms and legs and kind of the military training and i was okay so i kind of -- i was facing face down and i kind of pushed myself over and the guy next to me was okay and the guy next to us was unconscious, so kind of grabbed him and got him awake, and he was okay and, you know just -- there was a lot of blood and a lot of people screaming asking and crying for help and just trying to do what i could to stop the bleeding on those people. >> what did the crew members of the train do in your car? >> there were two crew members. there was the lady that worked in the cafe cart, like the cantina where you can buy coffee. she was there and was thrown around like a pinball because she was standing up when it happened so she was pretty
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shaken, to say the least, and there's another conductor in the other car so when i helped the guy who was unconscious, he got him up. there were other people in my car. i could hear screams in the other cars so before i went over there i saw that there was a -- that the emergency exit the window was actually now the ceiling so i pulled myself up over the one seat and then stood up and was able to unlatch it and push it out as far as i could, punch it out, and then folks were just dying to get out. they were running, not running because they couldn't run there, but just really pushing to do what they could, and i was helping them up up and out. about seven or eight people left and then i climbed over the cantina part and -- and went over and checked the other people there. there was a lot of blood, and a lot of people were really injured, andrea.
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one guy in the corner said he couldn't feel his arms or his legs. there was another one that was just full of blood, and he was a little delirious. he was, you know saying we're going to die, and i was trying to get him to calm down you know, sit there and applied pressure to his wounds. >> that military training kicks in patrick. we've known each other a long time. i'm so glad that you are well and recovering from this though the shock is something that obviously lasts quite a while today. thank you for joining me today, patrick murphy. >> yeah thanks andrea. and six people did die. more than 200 people were taken to three area hospitals last night in philadelphia following the crash. nbc's stephanie gosk joins me outside from torresdale hospital where three patients were transferred. stephanie, we do know now about several of the fatalities. we know that one of those who did die was a naval academy midshipman who died in the amtrak accident was on leave
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and en route to his or her home of record so we don't actually know the identity. there are privacy issues there, but the naval academy has put out a statement today saying the academy is deeply saddened to report that a midshipman was named as one of the passengers who lost their life in the amtrak train crash last night. the midshipman was on leave and en route to their home of record when the accident occurred. the naval academy is supporting the mid shipman's family friends and loved ones touring this time of grief. just one of the sad stories there. stephanie, what about those who are still injured? how many are serious and how many are critical? >> reporter: well, right now we know that there are at least ten who are critical eight at temple university hospital and another two at u penn.
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there's three hospitals, closer to about half a dozen, and we're hearing more and more about this. you think about the fact that this happened late at night. you're talking about, just a moment we're right below a subway. >> got the helicopters overnight. >> reporter: you're talking late at night. i apologize for that. you know you're talking about an accident late at night that was disorienting. over 140 people who were injured in that one moment and you can imagine the system here getting quickly overwhelmed. we're at the hospital right now that's the closest to the scene of the accident. they received 26 patients here. they have let them all go over the course of the day. another doctor at temple university hospital said that they received 54 and that the majority of them have been let go as well. that's where they have eight critical patients. he also said that one of those patients arrived at his hospital in critical condition and eventually died. he had severe chest wounds and
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they weren't able to resuscitate him. otherwise, a lot of people had what you would imagine to be relatively minor injuries in comparison, broken bones, lacerations, that kind of thing, and it's hard when you listen to patrick murphy's description, you really get a good sense of why there were so many injuries. there are no seat belts. people stand and have drinks in those cafe cars. they move around the train. those cars, sever sing well one of them, came off the tracks. andrea in. >> stephanie gosk more than 200 people were treated for some form of injury thank you, stephanie. this morning nbc's tom costello went up in a helicopter to get a bird's eye view of the damage and the destruction. it's extensive of amtrak train 188. >> reporter: 2,000 feet here above the scene, and really at this altitude you get this view of how terrible this accident was. seven cars as you know on their side the twisted and broken metal really littering the tracks but also just it seems almost as if it exploded in pieces across the tracks.
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some of those pieces literally just came together crushed up like a tin can. >> tom is back on the ground now at the site of the crash. what is the latest on the investigation, tom? and i don't know if this has been shared but wcau the nbc station in philadelphia is reporting that they are using canine dogs at the scene to look for other potential victims. >> reporter: yeah. we had seen that earlier in the morning, and that tells you how grim of a task this is as they bring in dogs to ensure that there aren't any more victims underneath underneath the train cars andrea. that's the concern here. you know fire rescue did a phenomenal job last night responding to this emergency, but the question that is hanging over this scene is whether there might still be victims trapped underneath those cars and they won't know until they pull all of those cars out, until they get them righted, if you will and that's why we've seen the big cranes coming in. meanwhile, you heard the ntsb vice chairman talking about the
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fact that they have got the data off of the black boxes. they are going to be looking at a couple of things here of the they are going to look at speed, direction of travel which is obvious, time distance, also throttle position the operation of the brakes the headlights if you will the operation of the horn and cab signals, and then they are going to do also this thorough analysis of the engineer and the conductor, and they want to know what did they see and what did they experience? they, of course, are going to do a toxicology report. that's standard. they want to make sure that there's nothing illegal, no illegal substances on board, if you will or that those two individuals didn't consume any illegal substances that might have impaired their judgment. you know we've seen also over the course of the past ten years distracted drivers in terms of texting or drivers who fell asleep, so we are in no way right now suggesting that the crew was responsible. we're just saying they have got a very long lies of issues that they have got to go through to determine what physically happened to the train, the
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mechanics of the track, of the wheels, of the performance, of the engine of the speed and the brakes and then they will look at the human performance element, and as you mentioned all the more critical because they don't have everybody accounted for yet. now, that may be because some people simply got off the train and then walked away and called a cab or somehow, you know got home on their own, but they want to make absolutely sure and when you've got more than 200 people injured. 200 people injured. you understand the gravity of this and how enormous this task is to try to track down everybody, but they are very worried that there may be others still there underneath the train car or train cars i should say. andrea? >> and tom, i know you've got to go, too, but a quick question. seat belts. has there been discussion of seat belts? i know school buses now and other, you know mass transit, but what about on trains? >> reporter: yeah. there is no national mandate on seat belts on trains.
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you know if -- there's a cost benefit ratio analysis if you will. that's the argument that the industry makes that it simply doesn't make dollars and cents to put seat belts on transbut after every one of these incidents, and i've covered a lot of train accidents covering this beat and after every one of them there's another discussion about whether we should be putting seat belts on trains. but, you know just like the conversation about the school buses, the issue would also come down to would anybody really wear them. would you really buckle your seat belt if you're on the amtrak line going, from you know, d.c. up to new york? a lot of people candidly would probably not do that. >> after today i would say yes. thank you very much tom costello, for all of your work there. democratic senate chris coons rides that same train home from washington every night and knows the condition of the rails. senator, thanks so much for being with us. ride between washington and wilmington obviously, and one of your mentors and former
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colleagues, joe biden, is the man of amtrak. the vice president has issued a statement saying amtrak is like a second family to me as it is for so many other passengers. for my entire career i've made the trip from wilmington to washington and back. i've come to know the conductors and engineers and many regulars men and women riding home to kiss their kids good night as we pass the flickering lights of each neighborhood along the way. our thoughts and prayers are with each family grieving from this tragedy. i, like you, am a regular on that train. what is the state of the rails, the infrastructure? >> well, andrea first, my thoughts and prayers are with the families that have lost loved ones in this tragic accident, those who are still in hospital and are hopefully going to fully recover. my -- my thanks -- my thanks to god go for the safety of patrick murphy, former congressman who you just had on and my senior
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senator tom carper who was on that train but got off in wilmington. i'm also grateful for the first responders the fire fighters and rescue crews who have made such progress in dealing with this accident. you raise an important point, and iia. you ask me about the condition of the rail. i ride amtrak back and forth from wilmington to washington virtually every workday, and it is striking to me that right today, earlier today, the house appropriations committee marked up a bill for transportation for this year that cuts $250 million out of amtrak's budget. we have 750,000 people every day that ride the northeast corridor, that ride between washington and boston. this is amtrak's line that has steady increases in revenue and ridership year over year but where congress continues to fail to invest the money that they need to modernize and update our transportation infrastructure.
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congress is significantly failing to invest in our transportation infrastructure around the country. we've had bridge failures out west highway and port and rail challenges for years but this tragedy helps focus us on amtrak which is a key piece of our national rail infrastructure and the northeast corridor which is the busiest and most heavily used. we have a tunnel that we used to get to and from a baltimore every day that was built in the 1870s. we've got turns and bridges and pinch points that are dramatically out of date and we need to invest more in modernizing it. i also, andrea just in close want to say how grateful i am to the men and women of amtrak. as the vice president's statement referenced, those of us who ride the train every day know how hard they work, how much they do how well they contribute to the comfort and safety of their passengers and i just -- my thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who work on amtrak every day and who i know must be responding to this with great concern and anxiety. >> thank you so much senator. thanks for being with us and for
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your message. >> thank you. nbc "nightly news" producer janell richards was on the train last night and captured these moments right after the crash when she and others in the car were able to exit through a back exit pried open by another passenger. janell richards joins me now. janell, it is incredible that you captured this moment on video video, just watch for a moment. >> yeah. >> i mean us a watch this now with me. >> go, go, go. should i just get out. >> i hesitate to thought what thoughts and emotions it probably brings back to you. >> the initial thing that i think about when i hear that video is the impact and the very calm panic that set in. people wanted to get out of the train, and they were trying to figure out the best way to do that. passengers had assembled at the door, and they were trying to press that button so that the
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door would slide open. it didn't slide all the way, but it slid open just enough so that people could start filing out of the train, and when they got out of the car it wasn't as if the fear completely dissipated. the next question was what could happen? could these electric poles collapse in on the train car? is there another train right behind us? what about the wires? what about the cables? no one knew what to expect. >> janelle, were you injured? did you hit your head? did you, you know, feel anything with the collision itself? >> i didn't hit my head but i -- i vividly remember flying up a little bit in my seat and then the force of the impact flung me forward and back multiple times, and then all of a sudden it was over and i remember thinking what just happened? there's no way that an amtrak train just crashed.
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this is a train that have i've taken many times before and it was absolutely terrifying but it was also shocking and i don't think even now maybe that i've processed completely what happened. >> well it's just extraordinary that you even recorded the video. when you got off the train, how did you get off the train, by the way? were you elevated from the track? did you have to drop down? were there steps there? >> we were elevated a little bit but not high enough that i couldn't step down they easily. there was a passenger there, a gentleman, that held my hand as i stepped down and then you know he continued to help other people that were filing off the train. >> how quickly did the first responders show up? >> it's tough to say. you know it felt like forever, but i'm sure that their response time was probably within ten minutes. i remember after a couple of minutes looking up in the sky, and i could see and hear
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helicopters, and so i knew that somebody knew where we were and then i heard the sirens in a distance, and eventually i saw police officers with their flashlights on the other side. fence, and quickly after that things you know just started had a. they drilled the fence down, and you could see the sparks. first responders were at the train, and so on. >> well, janelle, i can't tell you, we were all e-mailing back and forth last night about you and i know were you taken to the hospital and i hope you get some rest now a little bit of a rest. we'll have more of your reporting with your firsthand eyewitness account on "nightly news" tonight with left every holt. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> take care. >> thank you. and stay with us here as we continue to cover the very latest developments on the deadly amtrak train derailment in philadelphia. coming up we'll talk to a former ntsb train investigator. . >> we were sitting there, and then it just -- as you saw it go
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like that and spun and you could feel it off the tracks and we just rolled and rolled. >> all of a sudden we were on our side and it looked like we were going to flip. we never flipped. went off to the side and back off the side. >> felt like the brakes were hit hard and then like our car, we were third from the last just like slowly started going over to the right and i just braced my arm against it and kept you know -- >> just got off, yeah. >> the next thing i knew we were pushing out the emergency exit and i was outside and there were people screaming and bleeding and we helped them out, and they are okay now. gency roadside assistance is there 24/7. oh dear, i got a flat tire. hmmm. uh... yeah, can you find a take where it's a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah? yeah i got it right here. someone help me!!! i have a flat tire!!! well it's good... good for me. what do you think? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. the citi double cash card. it earns you cash back now and cash back later. with 1% when you buy and 1% as you
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train 188's plaque box has been recovered and is at an operationer in the in delaware for analysis. this is ntsb officials are meeting at this hour in philadelphia to begin their search for clues as to what may have caused the train to jump the tracks. >> we're looking at the track,
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the train signals, the operation of the train the mechanical condition of the train, human performance. we are setting up a multi-disciplinary investigation. >> joining me now by phone is former ntsb train investigator jim remans. thanks for being with us. what are the first thing that investigators will be looking at from the black box? >> well what's happened now is that the black box is being read out in a closed location because they don't want the details on that so what they are going to be looking at is the speed of the train, how they have been doing that train, whether it was accelerating decelerating, whether the brakes were applied or were they being applied? they are looking at mechanical aspects of the train as far as was it respond together engineer's controls? >> is there generally one engineer on this kind of train? >> yes, yes. >> so the interview, the debrief
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with that engineer will be critical. >> right, and it will be a formal interview with all the parties to the investigation, including amtrak and anybody else that may be a party to that investigation. >> how hard is it going to be to establish a manifest of the passengers given the fact that although the train tickets i gather are computerized even on unreserved trains people could decide at the last minute not to get on. >> yes. that's been a problem. any passenger trains that's been the ease of tracking passengers on aircraft but not on passenger trains even on subways, always a problem finding out how many were on the train at the time of the accident. >> these are the old metro liner cars that preceded the acela cars on the train. did this have an automatic braking system where you have to affirmatively put your foot on accelerator to keep going, sand there any sort of, you know automatic speed control similar
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to what we might think of as in an airliner? >> congress -- what congress has done -- they set a throttle position by the engineer and they head in but there's no what they call positive train separation, that's the buzzword here. if the train is being operated out, you know unsafely the -- the positive train controls will intercede and stop the train and bring it -- congress has mandated it. it's in the works. amtrak has close to it but i don't think it was in effect on this section of track where the accident occurred. >> jim remines, thanks very much with your experience from the ntsb. thanks again. ohio congressman sherrod brown has been fighting for years for infrastructure investment and joins us now. only today, as senator coons was telling us senator, only today the house in committee, appropriation committee, cut
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$250 million out of amtrak's budget. >> yeah, i don't get that. i would have been -- thought it was pretty awful if they did it yesterday to do it today to in some sense dishonor the people that are injured in this is sort of beyond understanding, but i -- i don't -- you know, we spent -- from the '40s to the '70s into the '80s, we had the best infrastructure in the history of the world, everything from highways and bridges, water, sewer, public transit, railroads, ports, airports and we have been bequeathed that by our parents and grandparents and we've let it atrophy. you know i don't know yet enough about this accident to know what the condition of the rails are, but i do know that we've underinvested in amtrak just like we've underinvested in highways and ports in cleveland and dayton and all over my state and all over the country, and it's -- i'm hopeful that congress takes a lesson from this and really begins to understand. i mean, the chamber of commerce i was with the dayton chamber today, i'm going to be with the cincinnati chamber tomorrow. they are always saying we need
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infrastructure investment. it's how you create jobs not just construction and steel jobs and cement jobs right then but to lay the -- but to lay the foundation to set the table for more job growth as you know andrea. >> and from my own reading on this subject in the past these acela trains could go a whole lot faster if the track, if the roadbed were better but it's not been improved in decades. >> we run on the same old rail beds and the same curvy rails. i mean we you know over time you should straighten these out so that trains can safely go faster but amtrak is just always trying to kind of catch up to keep their tracks and trains and repair let alone kind of doing the new investment and we need it -- and trains run through my state, not nearly as important as amtrak on the east coast, but i look at the condition of water and sewer and highways and bridges and our ports and our rivers and our lake and our airports.
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we're just not keeping up and we used to lead the world, as i said, in that. >> i want to quickly ask you about the trade flap with the white house, whether or not this fast track authority on the trade bill itself ends up getting back on the floor. i know you were a fierce opponent against it, but you've john gottien yourself no an argument with the white house over the way the president referred to elizabeth warren and her strong opposition, and you said that you thought that the president was disrespectful towards her, that he made it more personal than he needed to. this morning josh earnest on "morning joe" said that he thought you might -- come out and apologize for what you said about the president. do you have any apologies to offer to the president about his comments? >> yeah, i don't want this to be personal either way. you know this to me is about how we put people to work and how our workers are retrained and how we enforce trade rules and take care of those workers that inevitably lose their jobs from wrong-headed trade agreements. and i've been talking to the white house for the last couple of days but i always talk to the
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white house about all kinds of issues. this is a really important issue for our country. i assume this will be back on the floor but we have no business sending a bill to the white house for more trade agreements without taking care of workers who lose jobs and without enforcing trade rules that -- that really will help to keep us competitive and establish a level playing field for our companies and our workers. >> senator sherrod brown, thank you very much. >> thanks andrea. >> thanks for being with us. very sad news from the associated press. the associated press has confirmed one of their employees was among those who died in the train derailment. they just tweeted we mourn the loss of our a.p. colleague jim gaines video software architect in the amtrak accident, and we of course send our condolences to all of those who were victims and their family and friends. stay with us as we continue to follow the breaking news out of philadelphia, including more on the investigation as the team from the ntsb begins to comb through the scene.
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. >> on behalf of a million and a half people here in philadelphia city, we also express our deepest sorrow. we will do everything that we can to assist families who have loved ones on that particular train and whatever their circumstance and condition but certainly with the six confirmed deceased. we are heartbroken at what has happened here. we've not experienced anything like this in modern times. ...and takes the wheel right from your very hands... ...this isn't that car. the first and only car with direct adaptive steering. ♪ the 328 horsepower q50 from infiniti. ugh... ...heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit.
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and we have more breaking news right here in manhattan. a suspect is in critical condition after attempting to attack a female police officer with a hammer. jonathan jonathan dienst joins us now. jonathan, what happened? >> he attacked four people with a hammer over a span of four hours.
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massive manhunt under way, two police officers neon penn station, a couple blocks north of penn station spotted the suspect. the police say the officers approached the suspect. the suspect then picked up a hammer with the claw side and went at the female officer knocking her to the ground. that's when her partner pulled out his gun and fired four shots, hitting the suspect twice. he is now in critical condition at bellview hospital. both officers we're told suffered minor injuries and are at a local hospital as well. >> so the female officer is okay minor injuries? >> yes. >> and this whole event has been resolved at least for now. there will obviously be an investigation into the shooting but suspect is still alive. >> yes, the suspect is still alive. they believe they can link him to the four previous incidents, and he apparently has a long rap sheet. we're tloeld's previous assaults, including one on a law enforcement officer along with drugs and weapons possession so -- and a history of mental
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illness. appears to be a somewhat troubled man who acted randomly picking his targets at random and decide it turn and go after police today, that according to the nypd. >> jonathan thank you. >> thank you, andrea. and president obama has welcomed leaders from saudi arabia not the king though to the white house today. they are here for the camp david summit tomorrow called by the president to address their concerns over america's nuclear negotiations with iran. the saudi crown prince and his deputy are representing saudi arabia after king salman himself bowed out at the very last minute widely considered a sign of strains between obama and the king. the white house has insisted the king's move was not a snub. >> it's wonderful to welcome back the crown prince of saudi arabia mohammed naniev. the united states and saudi
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i've never seen anything so devastating. they are in pretty bad shape. can you see they have completely completely derailed from the track. the aluminum shell has been destroyed, and they have been overturned completely. again, i don't want to speculate on the cause, but it is a devastating scene. most people, again, were able to self-evacuate, and that helped us out a great deal. the ones who were entrapped our special operations people brought hydraulic tools into service to get them out. train cars are overturned. they are in horrible shape. there's a bunch of debris down there, sharp object so it's a dangerous situation to respond and even more dangerous for the riders down there. >> survivors and witnesses have described the aftermath of last
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night's amtrak crash as chaotic and surreal. jeremy mctiernan a former marine who served in iraq is one of them. he was outside his home last night not far from the crash and took these pictures as first responders arrived on the area. jeremy joins me now by phone. can you recreate what you heard and when you saw the crash itself, what your first impressions were? >> yeah high and i -- hi andrea good afternoon. i really saw a blue light, reminiscent of a transformer blowing, followed by another blue light. at that point about two minutes later fire trucks and police started driving very quickly on frankford avenue past the scene, and about five minutes later they came back and cordoned off the area right in front of my
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house and that was a main triage area. passengers started coming off the area right up my road about ten minutes after the first blue flash of light, and as they came off, they progressed to get worse and worse. the first wave of people were just talking and carrying their luggage like they had just gotten off their stop and then the next wave of people were covered in soot dirty, just debris, you know all over them and then the next wave. there was then casualties that started to roll out. people covered in blood and people carrying each other with their arms over their shoulders and helping one another and the first responders started carrying people out at well on somewhat flat boards. >> what did you do? >> well i'm just in construction at this point. i'm actually staying at the property which is the house that we're remodeling. >> i mean what did you do as they were coming off the train? >> i apologize.
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yeah, we had a bunch of water. we started handing out water to anybody that needed it offering wash cloths if anybody needed to come into the house or use the sink to wash up or the bathrooms or plug in their cell phones to charge or use my phone to call anybody if they needed to. a lot of people didn't have their belongings with them so -- >> and were people -- they must have been in a state of shock. how long did it take before the ambulances starting arriving before they were taken to hospitals for treatment? >> i believe the first couple of buses that were going to hospitals in the area was probably about -- probably about 30 minutes after people started congregating on the scene. you know at first there were at least 140 responders there and then -- and then at the max probably a total of you know 300, 400 people just all on the block right there. most of the, you know -- most
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hurt people were right in an ambulance triage center about 40 feet away from my front stoop and other people were milling around trying to get in touch with others and comforting each other as well. >> thank you for everything you've done. thank you for taking a moment to talk to us today, jeremy. really horrific scene, and, in fact nbc news has just confirmed that there is another victim, another fatality. seven people have now died from the derailment of train 188, the amtrak train shortly after 9:00 last night just north of philadelphia in the frankford area right off frankford avenue where jeremy mctiernan said he was living. next we'll go live to the scene of the train derailment in philadelphia and hear from another survivor. we'll be right back. >> i was on my side and someone told me i had been delirious and that they had carried me off. the shoes, my shoes are not my shoes. i lost my shoes and a lady gave
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me her shoes, and -- and a policeman walked me from beside the train track to -- to the -- to the sidewalk. 73% of americans try... ...to cook healthy meals. yet up to 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more... ...add one a day men's 50+. complete with key nutrients we may need. plus it helps support healthy blood pressure with vitamin d and magnesium. across america, people are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes... ...with non-insulin victoza. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza. he said victoza works differently than pills and comes in a pen. victoza is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. it's taken once a day, any time.
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and the we now know the identity of the u.s. naval academy midshipman killed in last night's accident. he's 21-year-old justin zemzer from rockaway beach, new york. played football at channelview high school in rockaway and he was 21 years old, according to the academy. according to wnbc. jeff cutler was on the second car of the train, says he felt the train tipping over right before the derailment and jeff joins me now from philadelphia. jeff, first of all, how are you doing? >> hi, and irea.
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i feel fortunate to be here. >> the second car, the impact apparently was front-loaded, if you will so tell knee what happened when -- tell me what happened when the train went off the rails. did it turn upside down? did it turn on its side? how did you get out? >> yeah. what i felt was it almost felt like liftoff. the train was going through a curve at some speed, and it started to tilt to the right. i was on the right window and as it did that if seemed to leave the ground almost. it almost seemed to be flying and it ended up -- i think it was easily a 90-degree turnover and when i came to my senses i looked down and the window was below my feet. >> and you suffered some bruises, but how are you. were you treated and released from the hospital? i mean have you had medical attention? >> that's an interesting story.
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i was one of the last to be helped out of the car because i was in the middle and our exit route was the actual end doors of the car except they were all mangled, and you couldn't just walk through them. you had to be hoisted through them by the first responders. i was -- i was sort of supported to the triage area and i thought i was kind of okay. i thought i might be able to walk away but the more i sat there, the more i realized i had pain in my leg. i didn't really realize hi this bump on my face on my head. that was pointed out to me earlier, but once i was designated for that certain triage category i was transported in a police van with several other people to temple university emergency room. >> and -- >> i was in the emergency room for a few hours.
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>> and are you -- >> i did not have a fracture. >> okay. >> yeah. i did not have a fracture. i'm limping a bit. i consider myself fortunate that my injuries are so limited compared to those of others. >> where do you live? are you -- what is your home city, and how are you going to get home? >> i was in washington for a business trip. i'm a journalist and i was attending a couple of conferences, and i was headed home to brooklyn where i live it. so happens i have family here in philadelphia. i grew up here and i was able to spend the night or what was left of it with my brother in his apartment in center city. i'm still kind of on an adrenaline rush. i'm probably sleep deprived but at least i'm in one piece. >> well, we're so grateful that you are all right. obviously some shock remains.
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thank you for being with us and safe travels home when you're up to traveling home. thank you very much. >> my pleasure thank you, andrea. >> stay with us for more about this amtrak train derailment in philadelphia. we'll be right back. sunday dinners at my house... it's a full day for me, and i love it. but when i started having back pain
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it just -- we were sitting there and then it -- we saw it go like that and it swung. you could feel it off the tracks and then we just rolled and rolled, and the next thing i knew we were pushing out emergency exit and i was outside, and there were people screaming and bleeding and we helped them out. they are okay now. >> that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we've been following, of course the breaking news from philadelphia where seven people are confirmed to have now died after that horrible train derailment last night. follow show online on facebook and twitter @mitchellreports. msnbc continues the coverage live with thomas roberts coming up next. ...and takes the wheel right from your very hands...
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hi everybody. i'm thomas roberts. we begin with our breaking news coverage of the deadly amtrak train derailment. we want to bring you the very latest because it is fluid. right now seven deaths are reported. hundreds are injured and officials fear that the death toll could rise. now among the dead a midshipman from the u.s. naval academy and staff member from the associated press. a search-and-recovery effort is still under way at this hour at the crash site. philadelphia mayor michael nutter who is giving a 2:15 p.m. press briefing says the train's black boxes have been recovered and are being analyzed. >> the 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 office from that particular device at all. >> we're also getting radio transmissions regarding the derailment.
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take a listen. >> notify amtrak to shut down the entire northeast corridor. we have a major event here. we have people on the track and a couple 6 cars overturned. >> let's talk about that shutdown because amtrak train service from new york to philadelphia has been suspended. there's no indication when it's going to be up and running again. the amtrak regional number 118 was traveling to new york from washington, d.c. with 238 passengers and five crew members on board when it derailed at about 9:30 p.m. last night. survivors say some cars fell on their side flinging passengers and luggage all around. a team from the ntsb the national transportation safety board, is on scene, and board member talked about exactly what they will be looking for. >> we're looking at the track, the train signals, the operation of the trains the