National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said investigators had made no determination thus far on what caused the Amtrak train derailment near Philadelphia on Tuesday that killed eight people and injured another 200. Speculation has focused on whether a rock hit the train’s windshield after it was revealed that the FBI would be investigating that possibility, but Sumwalt said it was still too soon to say that was the cause.
“We have not ruled anything out. We have not ruled anything in,” Sumwalt told Fox News on Sunday, adding, “We are still just gathering perishable evidence.”
Pressed on the matter by Fox News on whether they were leaning towards any theory, such as whether it was a falling rock or an object thrown by a person, Sumwalt responded that they were “agnostic,” though he did note that the such incidents are both highly disruptive to train engineers and common enough that they have a term for them: “getting rocked.”
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority train was hit by an “unknown projectile” at around 9:10 p.m. and derailed 20 minutes later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Philadelphia Inquirer Saturday. A southbound Amtrak train was also struck by a projectile at in the same area at the same time.
The derailed train was traveling at about 100 miles an hour and had entered a sharp term just before the crash. The engineer, 32 year-old Brandon Bostian, received a concussion in the crash and was interviewed by federal authorities for the first time Saturday.
