Breaking: Amtrak derails in Washington, killing at least 3 people

The Amtrak train that derailed Monday in DuPont, Washington, was traveling 80 mph in a 30 mph zone, according to NTSB spokeswoman T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, based on information that was retrieved from the rear locomotive's event data recorder. The train was traveling between Seattle and Portland when 13 of its 14 cars derailed, killing at least three people.

An Amtrak passenger train derailed in Washington state, as several of its cars tumbled off a highway overpass on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 100 others.
The Amtrak Cascades 501 was making its first trip on a new service route between Seattle and Portland when the train ran off the track near DuPont. Thirteen out of its 14 train cars spilled off the tracks, with several strewn off the Interstate 5 overpass with rush hour traffic below, authorities said.
All the deaths were contained to the train, said Ed Troyer, the Pierce County Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Emergency responders said they brought 72 people to local hospitals: 10 were in serious condition, said Capt. Dan Hall of the Washington State Patrol.


Cars on the highway were crushed by the train, but no one traveling in vehicles on the road was killed, officials said.

As a cold rain fell Monday evening, workers operating cranes and other large machinery were moving into position to begin the work of clearing the wreckage from the highway and the train tracks. Part of the train is still hanging over the edge of an overpass and onto the highway. Capt. Hall said he didn’t know when the work would be completed.

Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak, read from a prepared statement Monday evening, saying Amtrak was “deeply saddened,” and adding that it wouldn’t speculate about the cause of the derailment.

Rail experts said online GPS data from the train and the pattern of the wreckage indicated that the train took a curve too fast. The National Transportation Safety Board said the data recorder showed the train was traveling at 80 m.p.h., according to the Associated Press.

Latest developments:
-- More than 100 people were transported to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties, DuPont Fire Chief Larry Creekmore said. Ten people were seriously injured and one was life-flighted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, said Marc Magliari, Amtrak spokesperson.

-- Amtrak President & Co-CEO Richard Anderson said "Positive Train Control" was not activated on the tracks when the derailment happened. PTC is a technology that automatically slows down, and eventually stops, a train if it senses it is going too fast.

-- Investigators with National Transportation Safety Board arrived Monday. sent a 20-member team to investigate.

Share this

Related Posts

Previous
Next Post »