Injured Philadelphia Amtrak Passengers Recall Chaos

May 14—YAMEEN ALLWORLD, a Philly hip-hop producer and Questlove's emcee, settled into the fifth car of Amtrak's Train 188 on Tuesday night with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

It wasn't that he was unfamiliar with this particular Northeast Regional train. He took the same one every week for various gigs. This time, he was New York-bound to join Questlove at the Marquee Club in Chelsea.

But a half-hour before he'd boarded, he said, a friend and "spiritual adviser" had warned: "Be careful. Something terrible is going to happen tonight."

At first, nothing seemed amiss, even when the train started to make the sharp turn at Frankford Avenue near Sedgley close to the Frankford Junction rail yard.

The engineer didn't appear to be speeding, he said, even though the train actually was zipping along at 106 mph, according to officials.

"It felt like a normal train ride to me, but hey, surprises are everything on your birthday," said Allworld, who turned 45 yesterday.

Suddenly, the train "started to elevate a little bit," he said.

"Then I'm airborne -- crashing into furniture all throughout the car," he told the Daily News.

He flew six seats forward. Luggage, bags, seats and metal were flying. His knees started to bleed. His shins and neck hurt. The car became dark.

"Survival mode kicked in," he said.

Allworld and others used cellphones to light up the car. They popped a couple of windows out.

"We started to head toward the exit and another guy was with me and we were helping people out of the train," he said.

About 20 people were in his car.

"I'm no hero," he said. "I'm just an average citizen doing what the next person would do."

In all, seven passengers were confirmed dead and about 200, including award-winning chef Eli Kulp, were injured. Several more are missing.

Kulp, chef of the restaurants Fork, High Street on Market and a.kitchen, was being treated for "serious injuries," a representative told the Daily News yesterday afternoon.

Kulp, who describes himself on Twitter as "just a guy living the chef dream," moved to Philadelphia from New York in 2012 to become chef at Fork and has enjoyed enormous success since. Food & Wine magazine named him best new chef last year for his work at a.kitchen in Rittenhouse Square, which he operates with business partner Ellen Yin.

Dozens of the injured passengers were taken to various hospitals for treatment. Temple University Hospital alone had 23 patients. Some arrived wrapped in bloodied sheets.

Archie Thomas, field supervisor for maintenance work at the hospital, said he spent yesterday morning hosing blood off the ground at the ER entrance.

"There was so much blood," he said. "You see a lot because this is a Level One trauma center. But I've never seen anything like that and I worked in construction for years."

Passenger Caleb Bonham, the editor in chief of the website campusreform.org, was discharged from Temple yesterday morning.

"A lot more people could have died and my heart goes out to families who lost people," he said. "That was a lot of mangled metal. It was bad. It's tragic. Absolutely tragic.

"I hit my head really hard, but I'm fine," said Bonham, who had been traveling in one of the back cars.

The passengers were "just trying to get off the train," he said. "It happened very quickly. Very fast. People were yelling, 'Does anyone need help?' but everyone was pulling people off, making sure people were OK. Some people were looking for their things."

Six more patients were expected to be released from Temple late last night.

"I think we're fortunate that there weren't more deaths," said Dr. Herbert Cushing, Temple's chief medical officer.

"What little I've seen suggested things could have been a lot worse," Cushing said at a news conference. "Most patient conditions are either stable or better, so that's very good news."

Almost every patient suffered rib fractures, Cushing said, adding that he was surprised to see only one head injury.

A few injured or shaken passengers were at 30th Street Station yesterday morning, most of them trying to find a way to New York. Some took buses or cabs.

A few appeared shell-shocked. One young man sat in the Amtrak customer-service office with his arm in a blue sling. His eyes were moist; he held a bag of clothes close to his chest.

"I can't talk," he said, shaking his head.

A young woman said she was exhausted. She hadn't been physically injured, but appeared rattled.

"It was a real chaotic scene," she said.

On the Market Street side of the station, about 25 Red Cross volunteers gave comfort and solace. They helped passengers figure out how to get home.

Volunteers had cared for about 75 passengers overnight and by early afternoon, said Janice Winston of the Red Cross. The passengers hailed from all over the world, including Singapore, Chile, Denmark and Belgium.

"It's emotional to see people this way," Winston said. "I've been to lots of natural disasters but things like this are different."

Passengers who still had their cellphones stayed in close contact with relatives and friends.

As soon as Yameen Allworld had escaped the hulk of gnarled metal, he phoned his mom and dad.

Then he dialed his spiritual adviser.

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