Amtrak engineer 'hit emergency brakes seconds before fatal crash'

The engineer of an Amtrak passenger train applied the emergency brakes five seconds before it struck a digger sitting on the same track, killing the operator and a track supervisor, US officials said.

The train was travelling at 106mph in a 110mph zone when it hit the piece of construction equipment in Chester, about 15 miles outside of Philadelphia, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said yesterday.