The investigation into what caused the Metro-North train derailment Sunday is still ongoing and officials are now saying that speed may have been a factor in the derailment. According to NBC News , the black box data recorder was recovered from the train, and will be analyzed to determine what caused the derailment .
The Metro-North derailment has so far killed four people and injured at least 63. The New York Daily News reported that the train whipped around a sharp turn in the Bronx just before seven cars tore off the tracks. “Engineer Bill Rockefeller told officials he applied the brakes, but they didn’t respond as the train approached a curve.”
Officials say that the Metro-North passenger train was travelling from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station in New York City Sunday morning when it derailed on a sharp curve in the Bronx borough of New York City. ABC News quoted National Transportation Safety Board member, Earl Weener, saying the following on Sunday, “The curve speed limit is 30 miles an hour. There is a 70-mile an hour zone just ahead of it, a 75 ahead of that.” Passenger Dennis O’Neil told NBC New York he believed the train was going too fast.
“It was coming towards Spuyten Duyvil and you could feel it starting to lean and it was like, ‘hey, what’s going on,’” he said. “And then it hit the curb real hard and flopped over and slid down the hill. A couple people were hurt very badly right in front of me.”
Investigators say they will be looking at a variety of factors that could have contributed to the Metro-North train derailment. According to ABC News , some of the factors that will be taken into consideration will include not only the speed of the train, but also the condition of the track, the train, and the possibility of human error and signaling problems.
[Image by Barry Solow via Flicker]
