Philadelphia Subway Derailment Kills 3

A subway train derailed and smashed into a support beam during Wednesday morning’s rush hour, killing three people, injuring 162 others and leaving some trapped for hours.

Officials said it was the worst accident in the 21 years that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has operated the regional commuter system.

Rescuers, aided by a mobile surgical team and special cutting equipment, freed the last two people nearly five hours after the accident, police Commissioner Willie Williams said. The three who died were among seven passengers trapped in the wreckage.

“Everything went dark. People were screaming in pain,” said Lea Green, a commuter on the train. “We had to walk over people to get out of the train.”

Transit officials said they were looking into a report that a dragging electric motor on one of the six cars may have caused the derailment.

Conductor Steven Young said the train had just left the station when it suddenly pitched to the left. A tunnel support beam crashed through the side of his car and into a group of people.

The train hit three support beams two blocks from its last station stop. A preliminary inspection indicated there was no danger of a cave-in, transit inspector James Sweeney said.

“I was in the first car, and as we went through the station you could hear the train hit something, like something was dragging. It went bam, bam, bam,” said Mark Robinson of Philadelphia, who was on his way home from an overnight cashier’s job.

“We got moving pretty good and then it seemed like it got bumpy all of a sudden,” said Ray Baker, who was headed to a teaching job in west Philadelphia.

Inspectors said they found splintered ties on the right side of the tracks. They said the last three cars apparently jumped the rails and fishtailed into the support beams.

“The second and third cars were bent and the whole side of the second car was torn off,” Robinson said. “It was peeled like a sardine can.”

The train had pulled out of the 30th Street station after an 8:30 a.m. stop. The station links with Amtrak trains and commuter trains serving the suburbs.

“People were screaming,” passenger Robert Rogers said. “It was dark and people were going left and right and were falling off the tracks and stuff.”

Traffic in the area was virtually shut down as emergency vehicles arrived. The transit agency had to shut down the east-west subway line and the trolleys that go underground four blocks away from 30th Street station to complete their trip to downtown.

Additional buses were assigned to the route and one of the city’s major one-way streets was closed off to all vehicles except buses.

The cleanup began after the last victims were removed, and traffic was expected to resume on the subway line this afternoon, officials said.