Washington - Rescuers with sniffer dogs found an eighth victim Thursday in the mangled wreckage of a train that derailed in Philadelphia, as investigators focused on the engineer's actions in the run-up to the crash.
All 243 people aboard the train -- which ran off the rails late Tuesday, leaving some cars overturned and reducing others to twisted heaps of metal and debris -- have now been accounted for, officials said.
Amtrak Train 188, which was travelling from Washington to New York, crashed as it entered a curve while moving at a little over 100 miles (160 kilometres) per hour -- twice the 50 mph speed limit, according to investigators.
Video leading up the crash shows the train accelerating as it nears the curve, rocketing from 70 mph to over 100 mph in the minute or so before the footage cuts out, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
Investigators said they had completed 3D scanning of the two most damaged cars and had started talking to passengers to try and find out what happened in the lead up to the accident.
"We want to find out their perspective of things. We want to find out where they were seated, and their injury patterns so that we can start correlating their injuries for accident survival," NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said.
He added that the train had been inspected before its departure Tuesday, and said: "There are no anomalies noted in any of those inspection records."
The train's driver, identified by US media as 32-year-old Brandon Bostian, has agreed to be interviewed by the NTSB, according to the agency's Twitter feed.
The compromised state of some of the cars left rescuers with a difficult job ensuring all bodies had been removed, and recovery workers found the latest body with the help of a cadaver-sniffing dog.
Apart from the eight fatalities, more than 200 people were injured in the wreck.
President Barack Obama offered his condolences to victims, and said he was committed to a thorough probe of the accident.
"I offer my prayers for those who grieve, a speedy recovery for the many who were injured as they work to recover," he said.
"We will cooperate obviously at every level of government to make sure that we get answers in terms of precisely what happened."
AFP
