On April 3, 2016, Amtrak train 89, the southbound Palmetto, struck a backhoe while travelling through Chester, Pennsylvania, killing two track workers and derailing the locomotive, as well as damaging the first two cars.

[1] It struck a backhoe obstructing the line at 7:50 a.m.,[1] slightly north of the Booth Street underpass.

[2] Among the passengers was businessman and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, who was on his way to Washington, D.C., to participate in the C-SPAN interview program In Depth.

[10] The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Railroad Administration immediately opened investigations into the accident.

[3][11] The train event recorder and locomotive video (both forward-facing and inward-facing) were recovered by the NTSB.

The NTSB report said that according to the federal investigation, the track was supposed to be closed to trains at the time of the crash.