of the cars spilling onto the authorities say at least six people were killed but it's been impossible to get inside some of the cars and so that total could grow. at least 50 people were rushed to the hospital. a passenger gives her of wt happened. >> we felt a little bit of a jolt d then at a certain point the -- we could hear crumpling of the train car and we were catapulted in the seats in front of us. >> that is obviously a he. officials say it was a miracle nobody in the cars were killed on route five in the vehicles. the amtrak train had 78 people on board, mostly vips, the media and the crew because it was the first trip of a $180 million project to shorten the trip between tacoma and portland. amtrak was using a rebuilt freigh line to bypass the

scenic route along puget sound some local officials have been expressing serious concerns about safety. president trump used the crash as a chance to call for increased spending for infrastructure and that a plan must be approved quickly. "action news" reporter sarah bloomquist is live at 30th street station in philadelphia. sarah, it is hard to imagine that amtrak passengers here weren't thinking about the tragedy in the northwest. >> reporter: jim, the derailment in washington is of course of concern here and many here can also not help but think of the derailment of amtrak train 188 in the port richmond section of philadelphia just twond a half years ago. we spoke with an attorney who represented dozens of those passengers in court. he has a pretty strong opinion as to what he thinks caused today's deraient out west. thirtieth street station is a busy place as the holidays approach. many students heading home and today's derailment south of

seattle wasn't exactly reassuring as they prepare to ride the>> i just hope that notg bad will happen. >> i have faith. >> i go to school here. i'm actually from d.c. >> reporter: okay. >> when i travel back and forth it is a little scary sometimes. >> reporter: may 12th 2015, amtrak train 188 went off the rails in the port richmond section of philadelphia. with 238 passengers on board. eight were killed, over 200 injured. the train was traveling at over a hundred miles an hour in a 50 miles an hour zone. it hit a curve and went off the tracks. attorney robert mongeluzzi represented 34 passengers and sees striking similarities between 188 and today's derailment. >> the first thing that you think about when a train derails on a curve is it was going too fast. and when you see the locomotive which is heavier and goes on a straight path while everything behind it falls over, it is eerily

reminiscent of amtrak 188. >> reporter: the ntsb found that the philadelphia derailment could have been prevented by positive train controls, a computerized speed limiting system. the safety measure is not in placewide.nd amtrak ceo confirme safety system was not activated on the stretch the washington train was traveli today. >> well, they clearly haven't learned. how many more people are they going to kill before this company makesand they obviouslyt done it. >> reporter: now, the priva of thatet strch of trac where the train derailed in washington south of seattle says positive train control is installed on that -- that stretch of track. why it was not activated today will undoubtedly be part of the investigation and in these cas, jim, as you know, these investigations can typically take about a year.

live at 30th street station, i'm sarah bloomquist channel6 "acton jim. >> the ntsb has l of work to do out west. you can follow the latest developments of the fatal amtrak derailment on 6c.com. there you can also watch video from the scene in the state of washington. >> ♪ we have new information just in about this crash in burlington county, new jersey. police now people are dead after an suv ended up wrapped around a pole and caught fire in tabernacle. it happened at noon at carranza road. official tells "action news" the suv was being pursued by new jersey state police at the time of the accident. authorities have not released any details about why the vehicle was being chased or who the victims might be. state senator daylin leach says he is stepping bk from his campaign for congress in the seventh district, the seventh pennsylvania district. that in the wake of allegations that he acted

inappropriately with female employees and campaign aides. "action news" reporter john rawlins is live in center city philadelphia where john talked to governor wolf about this this afternoon. john, what did the governor have to say about it? >> reporter: well, the governor was emphatic. he pulled no punches. he said the senator a fellow democrat should step down. the senator, however, is showing no signs he's about to do that. governor tom wolf in philadelphia today said leach, a political ally should step down and no, he did not think he was being premature basing that call on newspaper allegations of behavior by the senator. >> zero tolerance in the executive branch. this is not something that anybody male or female should be forced to subject himself or herself to in the course of doing a job. >> reporter: leach's state senate office building in kin of prussia opened for business but staffers today not wanting to talk about the cloud hang over the boss. the published accusations

leach inappropriately touched some female staffers while in other instances he voiced crude sexual remarks. aubrey montgomery a one time campaign finance director told the philadelphia inquirer she was offended by leach's language. daylin suggested i just didn't get the joke. labeled me a prude and characterized me to my colleagues as the campaign's wet blanket. the more uncomfortable daylin made me, the more he would dial up the intensity. the more i expressed my discomfort at his sexual and off color humor, the funnier it was to him. leach flatly denies he touched anyone inappropriately. as for montgomery, "in the office when the humor was flying, she was at least as anyone else and at the end of that campaign, she told me how proud she was to have worked for me. but a former male staff matt goldfine in an online posting backed up montgomery's view claiming he witnessed a pattern of inappropriate behavior.

well, so far no signs that leach is going to quit this job. in fact, quite the opposite. in his latest statement today he says he will continue to advance progressive causes in the senate and represent his constituents with honor. live in center city, john rawlins channel6 "action news." jim. >> thank you, john. new jersey governor elect phil murphy continues to fill out his cabinet. today the democrat announced tahisha way as his pick for the next secretary of state. way is an administrative law judge and a former freeholder in passaic county. if confirmed, she would succeed kim guadagno who serves as secretary of state in addition to lieutenant governor. the secretary of state oversees the state election division and the state museum and archives. the search is on for the thieves who stol christmas. or at least christmas decorations. philadelphia police released surilnce video just now. the crime was on december 9th. it happened at 5:00 a.m. in the 1100 block of fitzgerald

street in south philadelphia. you can see the suspect take a tree and other decorations from in front of a home. a second suspect acted as a lookout. time is running out if you want to get your hands on a piece of papal history. the second of two fiats used by pope francis during his visit to philadelphia in 2015 is being auctioned off for charity. bidding closes at 2:00 p.m. on wednesday. you can find a link to the auction on 6abc.com and proceeds benefit the 2017 catholic charities appeal. the first fiat 500l fetched $82,000 during an auction at last year's auto show black tie tailgate gala. students in delaware are on a mission to send energy and light to puerto rico. the colonial school district collected more than 7,000 batteries for victims of the hurricane. they far exceed the original goal of 1,000 batteries. a teacher at wilbur elementary

school organized this effort with churches that will distribute the donations. students took time this morning to count d sort the batteries. the seeds of greatness church in new castle is paying to ship everything to puerto rico. coming up on "action news" tonight, a little girl's mission to collect christmas gifts for friends in the hospital lives on despite her death two weeks ago. we'll see a remarkable show of support today. the eagles win but there's some issues. issues with the defense. you think? we'll have reaction from the team ahead coming up with ducis rodgers. cecily. >> well, temperatures are on the rise. over the weekend we were in the 40's. today we hit 50 degrees. that's 6 degrees above average. gets even warmer tomorrow. i'll let you know how long this unseasonably warm sticks around and have a look at christmas in the accuweather 7-day forecast. >> those stories and much more when "action news" continues in just a moment. >> ♪ sorry. i can't make it.

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>> two weeks ago today jillian massey of the lehigh valley lost her battle with cancer. the legacy of this five yelled girl will live on this holiday season in the smiles of children who have top spend their holiday in the hospital o jeanette reyes has the story. >> reporter: this morning hundreds of families gathered along with dozens of police officers from a handful of cities and townships. it's the second annual sassy massey toy drive now held in honor of small girl with a big heart and a selfless dream. >> she loved caring. she loved guessing to others. >> reporter: five-year-old jillian massey lovingly called

sassy massey died less than two weeks ago after a brief but courageous battle with brain cancer. last year the then four-year-old only wished that her friends at cp where she was being treated would have presents for the holidays. >> i said to her jill do you know why you've been at chop this long and she said to play mommy. >> this is what christmas is all about. it's not about, you know, our own personal wants, it's about trying to help other people. >> reporter: a modest request for 50 gifts balance leaned to 3,000. that with more than 25,000 presents filling up several trucks. people complete strangers from near and far showed up gifts in hand. >> everything that she was going through, she still had a smile on her face. >> reporter: her love for police officers brought them out by the dozens. they rode in on horses motorcycles even helicopters and helped escort the trucks to little jillian's friends at chop. >> unfortunately, you know, sometimes you only get to see

the bad side. but this is something where we can give joy and give back to the community. >> ♪ >> reporter: and jillian's legacy goes beyond these toys. in fact, these cards were passed out to encourage random acts of kindness and they were asked to also be passed along so that her memory can live on. reporting in ridley township jeanette reyes channel6 "action news." >> did we mention it was a remarkable story. a camden county woman has -- let me say this first. there were so many things that make us proud to call the delaware valley home. so see what else makes us philly proud. just log onto 6abc.com/proud. now a camden county woman thanked the people who helped put her on the road to recovery after a paralyzing brain injury. it was four years ago this month shani pitts delivered cup cakes to the physical

therapy staff at jefferson hospital. she has beaten the odds by learning to walk and talk again. she says it is something she couldn't have done without the care and support she received at jefferson. some of our "action news" favorites were honored at the trenton state house this afternoon. lawmakers recognized nora muchanic and photographer dy donor their decades of service to the garden state. they were given a special resolution as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle spoke about their contributions. nora and andy retired in october after working side by side for more than 30 years at the 6abc trenton bu getting a cancer diagnosis is difficult.

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america and schedule your appointment at cancercenter.com/appointment >> everybody is happy that the eagles are, what, 12 and two. >> 12 and two. >> 12 and two but what's going on with the defense. >> defense has had some problems last few weekends for sure. now the eagles have marked off another goal on the checklist. next monday they host the raiders in a game that might

not mean anything. in nick foles first game foles threw four touchdown passes against no interceptions. zach ertz there and nelson agholor. each have 8td receptions on the year. the defense as we mentioned not great but it did hold up when it needed to. now if theikings lose on saturday the eagles will lock up home field advantage throughout the playoffs. that would make the final two games meaningless. what would the birds do then? coach cautions against putting the cart before the horse. >> i have begun thinking but my focus is winning the game. because on monday -- because that to me is the most important thing. once we get to next week, we'll figure out next week. but -- but my mind-set this week is all about the oakland raiders monday night football and if we win that one and like i said, pretty much these

last few weeks, we control sort of our destiny right now. so, that's the focus for me. >> good problem to have. the sixers will visit chicago tonight without joel embiid. it's the first half of a back to back. embiid is still not clear to play on consecutive nights. ben simmons and others will be asked to pick up the slack. they've lost five of their last six games. despite that coach brown says he's beginning to learn his team's identity. >> how good are we? you know, where are we? what level of patience do we all have to have? and then being able to come out of christmas saying i think i know and i do think i know. and like this is the areas that we have to drill down on to make the playoffs. that's our goal. >> red hot. not just a candy it's a way to describe the flyers. they have won six straight games. they will try for number seven this evening at home against the l.a. kings. l.a. tied with the best record in the pacific division.

tonight game marks the beginning of a tough stretch for the orange and black. they'll play four games in six days. >> this is the way we want to be doing it. when you're playing good hockey like this you want to be playing every other day. you don't have much time to think so you're kind of still creating good habits and you're just continuing to play straight ahead hockey which is good for this group. >> villanova remains the top ranked men's college basketball team in the nation. friday the cats face hofstra on long island. owls have flown to florida. temple is in saint petersburg. the owls place in florida international university thursday night. it's fun in the sun but coach geoff collins plans to strike a nice balance between work and >> so focused on play at a high level against a very good opponent. when it's time to have fun we're going have fun. when it's time to lock in and be about business and be about film study and be about practice that's what it's about and that's the challenge

to our older guys to make sure they hold everybody in our team accountable that that's how we go about our business. >> the full name is the bad mowers gasparillo bowl. >> they had a lawn mowing competition down there. i'm working on that for 11:00. >> the weeds are flying. >> cecily tynan with that accuweather forecast when we continue in just a moment. i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50?

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now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. >> the action cam in trenton hanging out by the statehouse on this partly sunny day and notice there's a lot of green on that ground. they got about an inch and a half of snow on friday. it's all melted with temps in the 40's over the weekend, 50 today and this is a great looking sunset. i got a lot of sunset shots posted on my facebook page from the jersey shore and dan posted that from ocean city just seeing some high thin clouds, some cirrus clouds really making the sunset look beautiful but the main question people have been asking me on social media on my live facebook chats is will we have a white christmas? christmas is seven days away and i have to tell you the pattern does not look favorable for a white christmas. historically we don't have much of a chance at all, only 7.9 percent of philadelphia having at least an inch of snow on the ground at christmas. this year it's no higher. heading towards christmas i'm tracking a very active pattern setting up but most of the systems will be cutting to our

west. so, what this means is most of them will bring us rain instead of snow. at this point christmas is looking more wet than white. that's seven days away. things could change. i'll keep you posted. right now stepping outside not that cold out there at all. 47 degrees in philadelphimal hif the y. we hit 50. and atlantic city airportn pomona 47. even in the poconos pretty mild, 37 degrees. satellite and radar showing there's a warm front up to the north that actually has been bringing some rain and snow across parts of new england. here, though, we're just getting a surge in temperatures and even tonight pretty mild for december standards. normal low for this time of the year for philadelphia is 29. 38 degrees. close to 10 degrees above normal. allentown 34, cape may 39. and wilmington 36 degrees. tuesday pick of the week. if you like things mild. mixture of clouds and sunshine at 7 o'clock, already 42 degrees, already close to our normal high.

1 o'clock, 55. should reach our high around 56 degrees, that's 12 degrees above normal, so enjoy it in you like that warmth. a cold front will be moving through late in the day tomorrow. it comes through dry and what this does, it brings us a bit of a wind shift. winds shifting more west-northwest so temps begin to cool off on wednesday, 45 degrees. there's a low pressure down to the south with some rain. that will be to the south but what it will do is throw some high thin clouds. so, wednesday filtered sunshine, kind of a milky sky, more sunshine on thursday but that's when temperatures drop to more seasonable levels. so, the seven-day forecast, the exclusive seven-day forecast, tomorrow partly sunny, 12 degrees above average. 56 degrees. on wednesday, temperatures start stepping down. 45 degrees with that filtered sunshine. thursday winter officially arrives at 11:28. it will feel like winter, 42 degrees but one day of seasonably cool weather. by friday, it's mostly cloudy,

49 degrees. the rain developing friday night and saturday look at that temperature, 61 degrees. it won't be bright and sunny, though. it will be cloudy with some rain. sunday for christmas eve, rain is possible, 49 degrees. and monday on christmas day, it will be mostly cloudy with a threat of some rain with a high of 50 degrees. looks like we could have some rain for the eagles game. i'll have an update on "action news" at 11:00. >> all right cecily. abc's "world news tonight" with david muir is next on channel6. "action news" continues at 10:00 on phl17 with brian taff sharrie williams, adam joseph and ducis rodgers. then please join us for "action news" at 11:00 here on channel6. for cecily tynan ducis rodgers and the entire "action news" team, i'm jim gardner. we hope you'll join us for "action news" at 11:00. >> ♪

tonight, breaking news. the deadly train derailment. we're on the scene at this hour. the amtrak train veering off the tracks. hanging from an overpass. part of the train landing on the interstate. several passengers killed. dozens injured. >> oh, my god. >> tonight, what investigators said just a short time ago. and my interview with the passenger who crawled out through a window and then plunged into the woods below. also tonight, the chaos at america's busiest airport. the crippling 11-hour blackout. hundreds of flights canceled. passengers traveling for the holidays told to leave their luggage at the airport. thousands still waiting tonight. we're tracking two systems moving across the country. blinding rain from texas to the carolinas. the second storm will sweep into the northeast. ginger with the latest track.

your money, your taxes tonight. the president on the verge of