UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: He ran up front to find seats and he wasn't gone five minutes, and it hit, and everything started sliding.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden it was just a big crash, and it looked like an atomic bomb going off.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Amtrak Colonial with hundreds aboard was derailed.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More people died here and were injured than in any rail accident in the history of Amtrak.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was clearly a nightmare, if anything that understates it. It was the biggest accident in terms of loss of life at least up to that time, the consequences were massive.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were kicking the windows out of the trains trying to climb out and everything, and they were hysterical, they were in shock, and screaming: What happened? Where are we at? FRANKEN; The first feeling you have is, my heavens, how am I going to be able handle this? You are almost overwhelmed by the magnitude. At the very same time, you click into almost a computer- like mode, you sort of become a machine of sorts.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amtrak says it appears the freight locomotives ran a red light.</s>SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), NEW JERSEY: Was this an accident waiting to happen?</s>JOHN RILEY, FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMIN.: We have taken toxological tests of the crew.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Traces of marijuana were found in the blood and urine of both the engineer and brakeman and the Conrail locomotive. FRANKEN; It really addressed the safety of our train system, ultimately finding out that drugs played a part, and that is pretty scary.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In my 40 years this is one of the worst ones.</s>FRANKEN: What a horrendous tragedy that was.
CNN 20: Amtrak Crash, January 4, 1987