Fuel Pizza co-founder felt ‘crazy shake’ before fatal Amtrak crash

Minutes before the Amtrak train traveling from Washington to New York derailed outside Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Jeremy Wladis sat in the last car, eating a slice of Fuel Pizza, texting and getting work done on his tablet.

It’s an almost weekly business trip for The Restaurant Group’s CEO, a New York resident who helped found Fuel in Charlotte about 17 years ago. Wladis had just sat down after walking the length of the train, as he often does, to get a bit of exercise.

He remembered thinking the train, which had left Washington about 15 minutes late, was going a little fast after pulling away from the Philadelphia station. He decided operators were probably just trying to make up lost time.

Within moments, he felt what he describes as a “crazy shake” followed by chaos. Wladis, who had been sitting in a right-hand side aisle seat, was smashed into the window seat as the train careened, bringing the car in front of his into view at an almost perpendicular angle.

His car never flipped over, but “things started flying.”

“Cell phones fly, laptops fly, purses fly, bags fly, shoes fly, two women flew. They were catapulted above my head into the luggage rack,” Wladis said.

People cried, prayed and screamed to stay away from anything metal or wire and to stay off the tracks.

Only a few minutes passed before what seemed like 100 firefighters and police arrived at the scene, Wladis said, though even they couldn’t provide clear direction at first.

“It’s what you see on TV or in a movie. There’s no protocol for a derailment,” he said.

Wladis and others in the car, including his business partner, managed to crawl out.

Wladis then called his wife to tell her about the accident and to inform others, including his mother Liz Slowik, a Plaza Midwood resident, that he was OK.

Passengers walked the length of several football fields to a nearby town, where residents offered them bottled water and bathrooms.

“It was such a sense of community,” Wladis said. “Like brotherly love.”

The 51-year-old father of two said he feels like the “luckiest guy in the world” and that his “carpe diem” attitude has only intensified after the accident.

Business will require Wladis to keep traveling.

He flew to Charlotte, which he described as “a second home,” for about two weeks a month over several years when he and his partners were opening Fuel in 1998. The group operates Fuel Pizza in Washington and is opening an AG Kitchen nearby in Silver Spring, Md., which is why he takes the New York-Washington train so often.

“I still think it’s the safest way to travel,” Wladis said when asked whether he’ll take the train again. “I will be back on that train next week.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Fuel Pizza co-founder felt ‘crazy shake’ before fatal Amtrak crash."