An Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a faster new route on Monday hurtled off an overpass south of Seattle and spilled some of its cars onto the highway below, killing at least three people, injuring dozens and crushing two vehicles, authorities said.
Attention quickly turned to the train’s speed. A Web site that maps location and speed using data from Amtrak’s train tracker app showed the train was going 129kph about 400m from the point where it derailed, where the speed limit is significantly lower.
There were 80 passengers and five on-duty crew when the train derailed and pulled 13 cars off the tracks.
Photo: AP
Authorities said there were three confirmed deaths.
More than 70 people were taken for medical care — including 10 with serious injuries.
About two hours after the accident, a US official who was briefed on the investigation said he was told at least six people were killed.
The official said he had no new information to explain the discrepancy in the numbers.
The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and requested anonymity.
A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 127kph to 48kph for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, which is where the train went off the tracks.
The chart, dated Feb. 7, was submitted to the US Federal Railroad Administration in anticipation of the start of passenger service along a new bypass route that shaves 10 minutes off the trip between Seattle and Portland.
It was not clear how fast the train was moving at the precise moment when it derailed.
US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators were at the scene trying to determine the derailment’s cause.
Kimberly Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, confirmed that the speed limit at the point where the train derailed is 48kph.
Speed signs are posted 3.2km before the speed zone and just before the speed zone approaching the curve, she said.
Positive train control — the technology that can slow or stop a speeding train — was not in use on this stretch of track, Amtrak president Richard Anderson said.
He spoke on a conference call with reporters, saying he was “deeply saddened by all that has happened today.”
Bob Chipkevich, a former NTSB director of railroad, pipeline and hazardous materials investigations, told the Seattle Times the crash looked like a high-speed derailment based on television images.
In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, the conductor can be heard saying the train was coming around a corner and was crossing a bridge that passed over Interstate 5 when it derailed.
Dispatch audio also indicated that the engineer survived with bleeding from the head and both eyes swollen shut.
“I’m still figuring that out. We’ve got cars everywhere and down onto the highway,” he told the dispatcher, who asked if everyone was okay.
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