Two workers were killed on Sunday morning when Amtrak Train 89 collided with a backhoe on the tracks.
On Monday, the deceased workers were identified by the Delaware County Medical Examiner’s Office as 59-year-old Peter John Adamovich of Lincoln University, Pennsylvania and 61-year-old Joseph Carter Jr. of Wilmington, Delaware.
According to an unnamed source cited by the Wall Street Journal, the deaths of the two men may have come as a result, in part, of a miscommunication during the shift change and the two men perished while the supervisor, Adamovich, was trying to save Carter’s life.
The collision, which took place in Chester, Pennsylvania, occurred on Sunday morning while the Amtrak train was traveling from New York City on its way down to Savannah, Georgia.
According to the partially government-funded National Railroad Passenger Corporation that operates as Amtrak, the collision between the backhoe and the train caused the derailment of the train’s lead engine.
At the time of the deadly crash, the train was carrying a total of seven crew members and 341 passengers, Amtrak indicated.
The Washington Post reports that 31 passengers aboard the derailed train were injured during the the Sunday evening collision.
We’re still gathering facts on that information as to who had the authority to be on that track
In regards to whether or not the backhoe involved in the collision had approval to operate in the area at the time of the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board’s lead investigator of the incident, Ryan Frigo, was quoted by NJ.com as having said that board is “still gathering facts on that information as to who had the authority to be on that track”.
Prior to the train’s engineer dropping the trian into emergency mode, the train was traveling at a speed of 106 miles per hour, according to Frigo.
Both of the workers that died in the crash were Amtrak employees — one a backhoe operator and the other a supervisor, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) confirmed to reporters on Sunday while citing Amtrak board chairman Anthony Coscia as the source.
The local fire commissioner in Chester, Travis Thomas, indicated during a Sunday morning press conference that it didn’t look like any of the train’s passengers had suffered any major injuries during the collision.
