After the horrible Amtrak derailment Tuesday evening, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter convened a press conference Wednesday morning to update the public about the growing casualties list and the progress of the cleanup.
“This is fully coordinated operation,” he said. “Everyone understands their role. We train for these kinds of incidents—although every one of these instances, and this is a tragedy, are very different.”
“Again, from last night,” he continued. “We can only confirm that, unfortunately, we have six deceased. We have transported now hundreds of people to various hospitals.”
Sadly, not all the passengers of the train, Mayor Nutter went on to say, have been accounted for.
“Everything still at this paint, 12-plus hours into this traffic event, is preliminary information and subject to change,” he intoned.
Finally, authorities and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials have not yet confirmed the cause of the derailment.
“The black box has been recovered,” Nutter said. “We have no information from that device at all because it is currently being analyzed by the experts.”
The NTSB is leading the investigation.
UPDATE: The New York Times reports seven people have now died:
Investigators recovered the so-called black box data recorders from the wreckage of a derailed Amtrak train on Wednesday, while emergency crews searched for more survivors and victims of a crash that killed at least seven people and injured more than 200.
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