i have robert halstead. he's back. a railroad reconstruction expert. from what you have seen so far how do you suppose this accident happened? >> well we can't really draw any conclusions from what we have at present. i can tell you that the investigation in general is going to look at a number of functional areas. that's going to be human factors, track signal and possible equipment issues. a number of event recorders that are present on a train are going to be downloaded and analyzed. and in particular if we may have had human factors related issue, that data should shed a lot of light on whether or not that can be ruled in or out. >> we're looking at a picture of the second car of this train. as you can see, it doesn't even resemble a train car any longer. it looks completely incinerated. what do you suppose happened? >> well as an investigator arriving at the scene, when i see that kind of devastation, i could immediately draw a conclusion that this was likely a higher speed derailment and collision rather than lower speed. for instance if you have

joining me now is robert halstead along with bob francis. thank you both for joining us. mr. francis, let me start with you. the ntsb now saying that this train according to initial data analysis was going in excess of 100 miles an hour around this 50-mile-an-hour curve. some passengers also said before the crash it felt like the train was moving excessively fast. assuming that information is correct and this is obviously early information, would this suggest that speed was the major if not the only factor in this accident? >> it certainly is a good candidate for the top of the pile. obviously there will be a lot more analysis done of the scene et cetera, et cetera. but double the speed on a obviously difficult curve is certainly a candidate for being right up there. >> mr. halstead we just watched tom foreman show us the physics of this. 100 miles an hour versus 50 in a crash like this. what's your experience in similar crashes? >> well right off the bat, looking at the size of the debris field that we had here the fact that we had a passenger car that was bent virtually in

robert halstead thanks for joining us. we ask to you stay with us we'd like to talk to you a little bit more as we continue to follow this deadly train accident in philadelphia. we'll be right back. you pay your auto insurance premium every month on the dot. you're like the poster child for paying on time. and then one day you tap the bumper of a station wagon. no big deal... until your insurance company jacks up your rates. you freak out. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? hey insurance companies, news flash. nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. . . . ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the ones with the guts to stand apart - join a league all their own. ♪ there is an ancient rhythm... [♪] that flows through all things... through rocky spires... [♪] and ocean's swell... [♪] the endless... stillness of green... [♪] and in the restless depths of human hearts... [♪] the

joining us to weigh in is railroad signal an accident reconstruction expert robert halstead.hank you for joining us this morning. >> good moaning. >> you have investigated over 300 railroad accidents in the last 17 years. from what you have heard so far we have had all of these passenger comments to come in first hand what they experienced. what do you think happened? >> well the forensic analysis portion is only now beginning to unearth. the the event recorders will be located. there will be two of them on the train one on the front and one on the back. investigators are going to locate those and try to download the data from them. there's also a good likelihood this train was video equipped. if so they are going to pursue it and download the video footage. the signal system has event recorders they are going to be particularly interested in the last signal that this train passed prior. they are going to see what signal indication was displayed to the engineer determine first if that indication was proper and determine whether or not the engineer complied with the signal. >>

railroad accident investigator robert halstead says speed could have played a role in last night's accidenthether that's an indictment of high-speed rail in general. >> it's not necessarily an indictment of high-speed rail. what it shows is combine high-speed rail with adequate protections of human failure, if that is the case here is. neil: if it is true early reports the train was going 100 miles an hour debatable whether it was still going that fast at a turn, which could be obviously very dangerous, is that in and of itself enough to sort of step back and assess why, why some train conductors do this? >> well you know, we've had a number of accidents in the past that have involved human factors failure in some fashion or another. the recent derailment in the bronx comes to mind in november. we had a gentleman there operating the train who was severely fatigued and had an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea at the time of the accident. neil: there such we don't know about the conductor here. what i'm asking you is whether schedules on a train that might be running late that was not the case