The train sped up from 75 to 106 in the last minute before the crash. If you look at the window, it does look like something hit the windshield.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Amtrak train that derailed along the nation’s busiest tracks may have been struck by an object in the moments before it crashed, investigators said Friday, raising new questions about the deadly accident.
National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said an assistant conductor aboard the train told investigators that she heard Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian talking over the radio with an engineer for a regional railroad just before the crash.
The regional engineer, who was in the same area as the Amtrak train, said his train had been hit by a rock or some other projectile. The conductor heard Bostian say the same had happened to his Amtrak train, according to Sumwalt.
The windshield of the Amtrak train was shattered in the accident but one area of glass had a breakage pattern that could be consistent with being hit by an object, he said, and the FBI is investigating.
Here is the report and picture on the projectiles that hit a Septa train about five minutes before, about 4 miles away:
A projectile hit a SEPTA train minutes before an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia Tuesday night, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams confirmed.
Williams said investigators do not believe the SEPTA incident is related in any way to the derailment.
The projectile hit and busted the engineer’s window on a northbound SEPTA train that was headed to Trenton on tracks that run along the Amtrak rails, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. About 80 passengers were put on buses to continue their trip.
HT: Right Scoop