patients in the trauma unit. hahnemann university hospital also taking patients. i would imagine every hospital in the area taking patients from this accident. matthew l. wald? two points. first of all, they re lucky they re in philadelphia because even that train goes through some rural stretches. and amtrak has had previous accidents that are miles and miles from the nearest hospital. there s some benefit to having a crash like this in an urban area. it s probably a little early to say that this crash was caused by poor upkeep or old equipment. that may be the case but it s a little early to say. and then there s this interesting 1995 derailment in palo verde. the sunset limited came off the tracks the tracks has been tampered with.
derailed. first pictures that we are getting now, this is from our wpvi affiliate in philadelphia. and these are from the scene. and these are the first pictures that we are getting in. this is videotape. and you can see, it is a very chaotic scene. there are people there who are who have been injured and getting a little information from them and treating some of them there on the scene and others will be taken to area hospitals. at least three area hospitals. hospitals in philadelphia say they are getting patients now, as rescuers work feverishly as you can see from the pictures there at that scene. we have just been told a short time ago to expect a news conference from philadelphia mayor michael nutter at any moment. joining us to help us through this is matthew l. wald who s an expert here on accident also peter goelz is with us an aviation expert and transportation analyst and also
the csx train has been ruling out. there were reports of other trains on the track, et cetera. we do know it was headed towards that turn so i did think the mayor did convey a fair amount of information, but he s right, it s impossible to tell if there was a defect in the track, if the train was traveling too fast if there was a defect in the train or the engine or and the fbi says there s no evidence there s something wrong, tampering with the track. those things are still unknown and they don t have any information on that. but at least we now know there wasn t another train on the track, which is really important information, because that would have been a totally different kind of a situation or a disaster to deal with. it may have even been worse. the big news out of this, matthew l. wald five people dead from this. and there are many people who are injured. five people dead in this train accident in philadelphia.
they are very busy people. so they will have people on the scene now that were in the area but they ll be sending those team all the local responders are there. you know the police fire and their investigators as well. and so and the federal rail administration also out of washington, d.c. will be sending people to help in the investigation. and they are the folks, of course that try to encourage and try to get money available to these trains to these railroads, for things like the updates, the positive train controls, the crash worthy cars improvements to the tracks but rail is very expensive. there s never enough money to go around. peter? there really isn t enough money to go around. and that s you know, both matthew and mary have mentioned, i mean amtrak has been under budgetary strains for close to 20 years.
point. the fbi is involved. the national transportation safety board officially sending out a statement saying they are sending a go team. that team will arrive early tomorrow morning where they can assess the situation. matthew l. wald as we await the mayor, this train was supposed to arrive at 10:45, northeast regional train 188 and you know about these particular cars. well you know, it looks like a mess in there, but think about what you re not seeing. there s no fire here. there s no fuel on the train. it s an electric train. there have been previous accidents with diesel locomotives that carry fuel. and if you don t get out, you re in deep trouble pretty quickly, because it s a post-crash fire. that s one of the things that makes amtrak relatively safe. it s also statistically safer than other ways to get from washington to new york. the other thing about theeds