Zach Feldman had been riding on Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 for about 20 minutes before he heard the first "really loud bang."
"I heard this really loud bang, then half a second later another really loud bang and then the lights turned off in the car," Feldman said of the frightening seconds leading up to the train's derailment in Philadelphia that has claimed the life of at least eight people and injured more than 200. "It flipped on its side, I tumbled through the air, along with my laptop and everything that was on me."
The 24-year-old chief academic officer and co-founder of the New York Code + Design Academy takes the train from New York to Philadelphia every few weeks for business.
Shortly before he heard the bangs, Feldman was sitting in the cafe car drinking a beer and looking at his laptop – not noticing that the train was going faster than it should have been – when everyone was thrown into what he can only describe as "mass chaos."
"I didn't pass out, but when I came to after what happened, everyone was screaming," he said.
After making sure he wasn’t suffering from any serious injuries, Feldman tended to two people next to him in the near darkness. They were bleeding from apparent head injuries.
He then heard the conductor radio for help, recalling that he heard her say "Amtrak train 188 is derailed. Send help immediately. Emergency – this is not a drill."
While waiting for authorities to arrive at the scene, Feldman helped nearby injured passengers, telling them not to move their heads for fear that they may have also sustained neck injuries.
“One of the guys was very disoriented – he didn't remember why he got on the train or where he was going,” Feldman said. "He remembered his name though. I kept telling him, 'Don’t move your head. Do not move your neck. Just hang on. You're fine. Help is on the way.'”
When the firemen reached the cafe car Feldman was in, passengers were told to get to safety if they could walk.
Upon exiting, Feldman found he was surrounded by passengers who were dazed or in shock. He said the train was “perpendicular, completely off the tracks,” and noted that it looked as if the front cars had suffered the most damage.
Feldman then went back to help mode, aiding a lady next to him from Hong Kong who wouldn’t leave without her bag. "I don’t think she realized the severity of the situation, so I said ‘I’m taking your bag, let’s go," he said, adding, "I was trying to get as many people out of there as I could."
He went to the triage unit that was set up near the crash site, along with the man that was next to him in the cafe car, before being sent to nearby Hahnemann University Hospital.
Ultimately, Feldman was just “bruised in a lot of places” but the old man he had helped walked away with “some staples in his head and a concussion.” Feldman found this detail out by texting the man’s family Wednesday morning.
Although he is modest about his own efforts, Feldman called those of first responders “heroic.” However, he feels Amtrak should be reaching out to everyone that was on the train.
“Nobody came to the hospital. If somebody did, I didn’t see them,” he said. “They haven’t even called me yet to make sure I’m alive. Honestly, I’m pretty disappointed. I haven’t heard a word from them. They don’t even know whether or not I got off the train.”
Feldman said the only official that took his statement was a detective from the Philadelphia police department. Feldman believes the only trace Amtrak has of him is his ticket – the one that a conductor scanned when he boarded.
“Clearly they’re going to be facing some legal action and other things over this,” says Feldman, who is still processing everything. “The only thing that I want is for this to not happen again. No matter what happens, that’s all that matters to me, so I just hope they [Amtrak] learn from their mistakes.”
Amtrak has not responded to HNGN's request for a comment yet.
