Amtrak train in fatal wreck was doing 170km/h, twice the speed limit, investigators say

A passenger train that crashed in Philadelphia, killing at least seven people, was speeding at 170km/h before it ran off the rails along a sharp curve where the speed limit is just 80km/h, federal investigators said.

The Amtrak engineer at the controls on Tuesday applied the emergency brakes moments before the deadly crash but managed to slow the train to only 164km/h when the locomotive’s black box stopped recording data, said Robert Sumwalt of the National Transportation Safety Board. The speed limit just ahead of the bend is 130km/h, he said.

Watch: Amtrak train derailed while speeding - US authorities

The engineer, who name was not released, refused to give a statement to law enforcement Wednesday and left a police precinct with a lawyer. Sumwalt said federal accident investigators hope to interview him but will give him a day or two to recover from the “traumatic event.”

“There’s no way in the world that he should have been going that fast into the curve,” Mayor Michael Nutter told CNN. “Clearly he was reckless and irresponsible in his actions. I don’t know what was going on with him, I don’t know what was going on in the cab, but there’s really no excuse that could be offered.”