. >> reporter: dennis o'neill boarded the metro north at 7:02 a.m.ding to a trade show in new york city. 18 minutes later he realized something was wrong. did you feel the train braking at all? >> i do not. i could feel the carline and flop over hard and as we were sliding down all the windows -- a lot of the windows had blown out. a lot of dirt was blowing through. at that point there was nothing to do but cover up. there was enough time to think the bad thoughts like "this could be it." >> reporter: how scary were those few seconds? >> scariest moments of my life, yeah. >> reporter: o'neill remembers people crying for help. he found his ipad and his cell phone and dialed 911. then he called his wife maureen. they had just celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary on thanksgiving. they have three children. have you really processed it all? >> i don't know if i processed it all. i started processing it. i had some weak moments since yesterday. >> reporter: when did those happen. >> yesterday i got in the car with my son -- >> reporter: what happened?

. >> reporter: dennis o'neil said the next thing he knew, the car was on its side. >> it hit the curve real hard and flopped over, and we slid down the hill. >> hit her in the side of the head. saw the woman go out through the other window. >> reporter: local, state and federal investigators led by the national transportation safety board are on the scene searching for clues to find out what led to the fatal accident. >> our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened, with the intent of preventing it from happening again. >> reporter: there are initial indications speed may have played a factor as the train rolled from the tracks and eventually stopped just inches from the hudson and harlem rivers. early reports indicate the conductor who was injured in the accident has said he was having problems with the brakes on the train. a full investigation is expected to last a week to ten days here. in new york, jay gray, news 4. >>> amtrak's empire service which runs from new york city to upstate new york was suspended for four hours because of that crash. service wa

. >> dennis o'neill was in one of the first few cars that careened off the tracks and slid down the hill towards the hudson river. >> i hit the window. all the chairs came out and the woman hit me and a couple of people were hurt badly. >>> as we were going over, i looked at my two friends and screamed. they were going over. >> four people lost their lives. three of whom were ejected from their seats and thrown out of broken windows. >> it's just the most horrible thing. i was just coming down and i saw somebody -- i saw a dead body. they covered it with a white sheet. and then the -- it's just breath taking. the dozens of injured were taken to four area hospitals. lisa delegagado's cousin was onf them. >> hit her the side of the head. saw her through the other window. her glass broke. officials say 11 victims suffered critical injuries. >> we had several people that were either trapped under cars or partially under cars. we had a list of cars using air bags. we did a little cutting to get better access to some of the folks that were underneath the cars as well as in the car. >> we're al

one survivor dennis o'neill had been riding for less than 20 minutes.and i was alive. >> reporter: dennis o'neill was on the metro north train heading to new york city on sunday. less than 20 minutes after boarding, the train derailed at - more than 80 miles an hour. >> cut the turn and flopped over hard. as we were sliding down, a lot of the windows had blown out, a lot of dirt was blowing through. at that point there was nothing to do but cover up. we had time to think and i was waiting for the worst to happen to tell you the truth. >> reporter: how scary were those few seconds? >> scariest moments of my life yes. >> reporter: just after the train hurdled off the tracks o'neill tried to help an injured passenger. >> she could sit up. she was bleeding pretty badly. >> reporter: the front of the train corridor was jammed shut. he made his way to the back where he was met by firefighters who helped him climb to safety. then hess called his wife maureen. they just celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary on thanksgiving with their three children. >> repo

dennis o'neill joins us on the phone from haverstrong, new york. can you hear me? >> i can, yes. >> dennis, thank you for joining us. we appreciate your time. you were inside one of the two cars that flipped over side ways. you took this picture with the windows covered in dirt on the bottom and seats on the side. now dennis, take us back to that moment and when you realized something was going very, very wrong. >> caller: yes, we were heading towards the station. the cars on the ride side of the car, you could feel it tilting a little bit. i looked up right before we hit the big curve that goes into the station. and we were going fast. we were going, you could tell, like something was up. and as we hit that big curve, it was bad. the train just fell right over. i happened to be on that side. so i hid down on the window and people on the other aisle fell on top of us. we were grinding along the ground for a yrds or something at a very fast-paced. and the car filled up with dirt and dust and things like that. so you knew right away, as we were approaching the station