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New Details On Bronx Train Derailment; Investigation Into Actor Paul Walker's Death

Aired December 02, 2013 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So, let's go straight to the scene of the crash to Nic Robertson who is there.

And Nic, we know that there's a news conference at the top of the hour. Do we have an idea what we're expected to learn there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, certainly, we should get some more details about what's going on behind me. If you take a look over my shoulder there, you can see that the last of the cars has been brought out of the dirt, so the whole of the train put back up right now on the tracks. And that's perhaps the first part or one of the first parts of the investigation, getting the cars back on the tracks, just seeing how they run on the tracks.

But we do know that the NTSB has now got the event recorder, the second event recorder back in D.C. They have downloaded the data from that. That will provide information on speed and braking, two key questions here about the train as it was going into the curve on the track. We also know from metro-north that the operators had been tested, routine tests, we're told, for drugs and alcohol. A police officer, senior officer, involved close to the investigation says a conversation with the operator right after the incident, the operator appeared coherent. And it's probably around these kinds of issues we may begin to get details. But don't expect full results, don't expect a full analysis coming out at the top of the hour, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Some new information, some light to be shed. What about these passengers, Nic? I know earlier you were at the hospital where a lot of these patients were taken. And you talked to a doctor there. What did he tell you about these people?

ROBERTSON: God, well, what we're hearing from the doctor at St. Barnabas hospital, Dr. David Listman, very trauma, clearly, for him to deal, and his colleagues to deal with all these patients coming in. He still has nine patients in the hospital -- seven in ICU, one in critical condition. The gentleman in critical condition broken vertebrae, but his story is so much deeper than we had originally understood. We learned about a 14-year-old boy who was injured on the train. He was traveling with his father. His father is the one with the broken vertebrae. Listen to what the Dr. Listman told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DAVID LISTMAN, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY, ST. BARNABAS HOSPITAL: He was on the train with his son. His son was 14 and was also brought here and was evaluated and had only minor injuries. I spoke to that family when the son was ready to go home while the father was still undergoing his MRI scan, but I think his wife already at that point understood how severe his injuries were, and she explained to me that her son is going to have to take the train. They live upstate. He goes to school in the Bronx, and he's going to have to get on the train at some point to start going to school again. And she doesn't know how he's going to go to school ever again on the train.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Quite emotional, as Doctor Listman talked to us there. As he said, more people, more passengers are going to face this similar time type of trauma when they get back on the trains, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I can understand how he would never want to get on that train ever again.

Nic Robertson, thank you.

We'll be watching, of course, at the top of the hour for the news conference, for new information on the deadly derailment.

Joining me now is Ron Lindsey, train control systems expert.

And Ron, let's just cut to it. I mean, is it time that we have seat belts on trains?

RON LINDSEY, TRAIN CONTROL SYSTEMS EXPERT: That's a very interesting point. My focus is really what makes trains safe, and then really are seat belts pragmatic? I mean, it's not like the airlines where you have flight attendants attending to the passengers. Most of the commuter rails don't have that type of people onboard.

BALDWIN: Is it time that that changes?

LINDSEY: Well, subjectively, I say no. From my standpoint, our trains are very, very safe in this country. If you look at Metro North, over 30 years, this is the first accident they've had fatalities in, passenger fatalities. So we run a very safe railroad here. And therefore, how far do you go for safety? And that's a very subjective opinion.

BALDWIN: What about when you look at operators of mass transit? You think of, you know, buses, trains in this instance, versus say a pilot, and you sort of do a comparison of the standards that both are required to meet. Can you just -- what are the similarities, and what are the differences, the biggest, in your opinion?

LINDSEY: Well, there's -- well, there are several similarities between airlines and trains, but not with buses. One is that in 2008, there was a major accident between metro link and U.P. in California. As a result of that, Congress mandated or passed a law called rail safety enforcement system -- excuse me, safety system. And that resulted in the requirement for all primary passenger and freight railways in the U.S. to implement Positive Train Control, PTC. That system is supposed to be installed by the end of 2015. Had that system been installed here, there's a good possibility this accident would have been avoided if it was due to human error.

BALDWIN: So, are you blaming that system? The lack --

LINDSEY: Well, no, obviously, it's a very expensive system. It's going to cost the industry $10 billion to put the system in, that they're going to pay themselves without any federal funding. And the benefits of that are only about $400 million over 20 years. That's a 20 to one ratio cost to value, and that's a tremendous burden on the freight industry, especially the passengers who don't have --

BALDWIN: Just so I'm clear that this very expensive system, this helped slow or stop a train in the case of a potential calamity, yes?

LINDSEY: That's correct. If there's a human error involved by the driver, this system is designed to prevent errors the driver may make. He may try to go too fast, he may try to exceed the distance, he is permitted to go through and the system monitors that. And if he attempts to do that, it stops the train.

BALDWIN: But you say this is a rarity, just quickly, you say this is a rarity, and you say no major changes, no major fixes are necessary that our trains are pretty safe?

LINDSEY: Yes, they are, actually, very much so, very much so. It's not like this across the world, but definitely in the U.S. We train our people very well. We test them regularly. Basically freight management does an excellent job of monitoring the activities of their engineers. And this pause train control system is an excellent system. In fact, I happened to be a designer of the first one. I had that opportunity. But yet again, it's very expensive. And so, what price do you pay for safety? And the seat belt kind of falls into the same category?

BALDWIN: That's the question. What is the price we pay? You're the expert, Ron Lindsey. Thank you so much for joining me and explaining a little bit about what happens and the safety of our railway across the country. Thank you so much.

LINDSEY: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Now to the death of a man outside of Kansas City's football stadium, who is being treated as a homicide, at least for now. This man was killed during yesterday's Chiefs-Broncos game, and witnesses say he was in someone else's car. The car's owner confronted him while he son ran to get help. Police took three people of interest into custody. They're releasing them. No charges have been filed yet.

And a paramedic says a mother in Alaska is a hero who saved lives after this plane crash on Friday, after Melanie Coffee's plane went down, four miles from the village of St. Mary's. She called for help on her cell phone. And when rescue teams couldn't find the crash site, she hiked to find them half a mile through slippery tundra. Coffee's desperate hike saved lives without a doubt. But four people did die in the crash, including Coffee's 5-month-old son. Coffee is in the hospital in fair condition.

Coming up, as investigators are really just trying to figure out what happened moments before Paul Walker's death, we're taking a look at the actor's greatest hits, including how he rose to fame. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Police say speed was a factor in the fiery crash that killed "Fast & Furious" star Paul Walker, but was drag racing a factor as well? Police sheriffs there say possibly, but an eyewitness says no. We may know more about his death soon.

CNN has just confirmed an autopsy on Walker to be carried out tomorrow. But what we know for sure right now is that many in Hollywood are in mourning today for this movie star whose career and life were cut short at the age of 40.

Before Paul Walker shot a frame of the original "Fast & Furious" he was ecstatic about acting in a movie about car racing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL WALKER, ACTOR DIED IN CAR CRASH: I thought it was a joke. I remember getting a phone call. It was like hey Paul, we realize we're not filming yet, but would you be comfortable with going to Las Vegas for a couple days to go to race car driving school? What, are you kidding me? This is a joke, right? It was just unreal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Little did Walker know then "Fast & Furious" would become a multi hit franchise, six movies raking in $2.4 billion in worldwide sales. That's according to box office MOJO. A seventh movie is on the way.

The likable actor would become forever linked to his character, street racing cop Brian O'Connor. But before the "Fast & Furious," Walker made a steady rise to show biz stardom, from commercials to television shows, then movies such as "Pleasantville" and "Varsity Blues." Walker also starred in "8 below." The dog lover welcomed the chance to act with man's best friends.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: I loved it. I never got sick of working with the dogs. That's for sure, you know. And you get sick of people from time to time and their attitude and this and that, but it's pretty hard to get sick of a dog.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And "People" magazine named Walker one of the most 50 people in 2001. As the career flourished, Walker seemed ageless.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WALKER: For a while there, it didn't seem like I was aging at all. And I noticed on this, yes, I'm definitely looking older. It's a good thing because, you know, at 35, I was getting sick of looking like 22.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Walker by everyone's account was easy going and legendarily nice on and off set. Walker called himself an adrenaline addict. He loves race cars, surfing, and marine biology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: This is my first passion, marine bio. It's what I thought I would find myself doing, working as a marine biologist and I found myself acting. I would walk away from it all to do this full-time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Passengers onboard a U.S. Airways flight from Austin to Los Angeles got quite a scare last night because they were told one of the people onboard their plane had an active case of tuberculosis. A man was removed actually from the flight during a layover in Phoenix. The CDC warned the Transportation Security Administration he was a potential risk, but the plane had already taken off by then.

A CDC spokeswoman said the passenger has not been confirmed to have any infectious disease, and today, Arizona health officials say there was no need for passengers to contact their doctors. Medical experts say even if this man did have tuberculosis, the risk in this case would be very, very small.

Coming up, a recently divorced man tired of being down on his luck gives away hundreds of dollars to complete strangers. But now, this Good Samaritan could be facing legal problems. We'll explain that.

Also, actor, Will Ferrell, look at this, joins a local newscast in North Dakota. Of course, he does, as Ron Burgundy. He co-anchors the broadcast. And you will hear my chat with the news anchor who shared the desk with him about what exactly happened behind the scenes. Don't miss that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It's not totally fixed. In fact, the president is conceding the work is not finished. This is according to Jay Carney, his spokesman. But the White House says the government's health care Web site is, in fact, working for the vast majority of users as the president promised it would after that disastrous launch.

CNN's Lisa Desjardins is joining me from Washington.

And Lisa, we know the White House is giving itself a passing grade, but they are also saying the work's not finished. So, you tell me what's left.

LISA DESJARDINS, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: I will tell you this. I just got off the phone with the conference call that Health and Human Services, CMS, holds regularly on the update on this Web site.

Brooke, they didn't say what problems are left, but they did say that it is not yet perfect and it sounds like one of the issues is they have not yet released numbers for where the errors are. They also seem to be dealing with an issue called the 834s. I don't know it is kind of (INAUDIBLE), but it is a really important number. Because, Brooke, what that means is when people signed up and they thought they had enrolled, you know, got the official recognition, those enrollments weren't all going to the insurance companies. That's the 834 process.

And so while today, HHS is saying they have fixed that process and that enrollees are getting all the way through, insurance companies are getting the notice. Here's the thing, Brooke. If you signed up before today, before this fix was put in place, HHS is saying you need to call your insurers and make sure that you, in fact, do have insurance, because there was a problem there.

So Brooke, reporters on this phone call pounded away at HHS, saying how many people is that, how many people think they have insurance from this system --

BALDWIN: What are the numbers?

DESJARDINS: And may not -- right. And they refused to say. A spokeswoman, (INAUDIBLE), again and again would not give numbers. It was interesting, Brooke, she did say we know 80 percent of the problems come from an issue with Social Security numbers, it's an interesting subplot but the point is they have some figures. If they know 80 percent of the problem came from a certain place, obviously they might know how many problems there are, they're just not telling us.

BALDWIN: Not yet.

DESJARDINS: There you go. Not yet.

BALDWIN: Keep asking those questions.

Lisa, thank you, in Washington.

DESJARDINS: You got it.

BALDWIN: And now to this man in Minnesota because, my goodness, he has had a bad year. This guy got divorced, he lost his job and he wanted to cheer himself up so what did he do? He said he headed to the mall of America to spread a little cheer. I want you to look closely here at what he threw.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

BALDWIN: Those are dollar bills floating down on shoppers. He decided to toss $1,000 on to the crowd below. Many of them were just hanging around listening to a performer who happened to be singing "let it snow." But police put an end to the stunt, citing him for disorderly conduct and telling him to stay away from the mall for an entire year.

Stay classy, Bismarck, North Dakota. My goodness, did viewers there get quite the surprise when they turned on their newscast on Saturday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good evening. I'm Amber Schatz.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm Ron Burgundy. Thanks for joining us tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Will Ferrell in character as Ron Burgundy co-anchored the entire half hour newscast complete with his signature rust-colored suit.

Listen. Obviously, there were plenty of awkward pauses, questionable comments. I talked to this young woman you're looking at here. She is Amber Schatz. She is the weekend anchor at KXNB in Bismarck, North Dakota. She is Ron's one-time and only real life co-anchor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER SCHATZ, WEEKEND ANCHOR, KXNB: He exceeded my expectations, and I had very high expectations because I'm a huge fan of Ron Burgundy and Will Ferrell. I was in college when "Anchorman" came out and I know all the quotes. I watched the movie dozens of times. And so, I had really high expectations and he was so great, he is so kind and so nice to everyone.

And it was funny because, you know, during the commercial break, he would talk as Will and at one point, he was like have you been running the teleprompter this whole time? And I'm like yes, yes, it's a small market. I run the teleprompter, too. He's like I'm really impressed by that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This is all part of a widespread marketing campaign for "Anchorman" the sequel that includes the Dodge Durango commercials, a new Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor and an exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Coming up next, one man spent 25 years in prison for murdering his wife only he didn't kill her. Don't miss that story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Incredible story to share with you now. This is the story of Michael Morton. Morton spent more than two decades in prison for the murder of his wife but Morton didn't murder his wife. After 25 years he was exonerated. Here's a preview of the CNN special entitled "The Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MORTON: I met Chris at Stephen F. Austin State University. We were taking a psych class. She was talking to my roommate and what caught my eye is he was feeding her a line and she saw right through him immediately. I thought she's pretty sharp. I want to get to know her.

Chris had this amazing laugh. She would throw her head back and laugh. It was just so genuine. You couldn't help but laugh with her. She was smart. She wasn't just sociable. She had a head on her shoulders. Everybody liked her. She could be and was completely independent without me, and I was lucky that she went out with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Find out how a jury convicted this husband of murder, a murder he didn't commit, and how he was exonerated. This film entitled "Unreal Dream." It airs right here on CNN this Thursday at 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific.

And before I go, little double duty for the next couple weeks that I'm thrilled about. Catch me tonight in prime time, 11:30 p.m. eastern, 8:30 for those of you on the west coast. It's a new show we're calling "In Case You Missed It." IT will be showing off all the very best moments on CNN today, including the interesting back stories, how certain segments or interviews made it on to television, why certain moments seem to be magical, the kind of moments you can't really turn away from, and how these moments really help forward the story that we are all over here on CNN. That is tonight, "In Case You Missed It" right here 11:30 Eastern, 8:30 Pacific. Do not miss it.

And with that, I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York with your CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's toss things to my colleague John Berman sitting in for Jake Tapper. "THE LEAD" starts right now.