Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above. Photo / AP
Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above. Photo / AP
An Amtrak derailment that killed at least six people, could have been caused by an object on the railway.
The New York Post reports the accident, which left at least one carriage dangling onto the highway below, might have resulted from a stray piece of machinery left on the tracks.
The report carried with it a picture of what could be an axel from another train.
Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above. Photo / AP
Authorities are yet to pinpoint a cause for the crash, however the Associated Press reported track maintenance problems were unlikely to be an issue. Speed has not been ruled out as a factor.
The deaths "are all contained to the train". said Ed Troyer, the Pierce County Sheriff's Office spokesman. "It's pretty horrific."
Troyer said 13 of 14 carriages were derailed in the crash.
"A couple of cars are not safe enough to search," he said.
"We know that there's nobody alive in them at this point, but there are some other [fatalities] that we are probably going to find. We just don't know until they can shore up those train cars and get in there and search them."
About 77 people were taken to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties, officials said. Four suffered serious injuries, according to Cary Evans, spokesman for CHI Franciscan Health.
A semi-truck with visible damage to its hood sits parked on the shoulder just ahead of a car covered in mud and debris and with a smashed windshield just beyond where an Amtrak train. Photo / AP
One passenger told CNN: "We were catapulted into the seats in front of us."
CNN released audio of the frantic emergency radio transmissions between the train conductor and the dispatcher.
"Emergency, emergency, we are on the ground!" the frantic Amtrak employee can be heard yelling.
"It looks like they are already starting to show up."
The derailment happened on the first day that Amtrak trains began using a new track between the cities of Tacoma and Olympia in Washington state, according to a news release from the state's transportation department.
The train was making an inaugural run for higher speed service, and local officials had reportedly warned of dangers.
Seventy-eight passengers and five crew members were aboard when the train derailed about 64km south of Seattle just before 8am (local time) Amtrak said.
A derailed train is seen on southbound Interstate 5 on Monday, Dec. 18, 2017, in DuPont, Washington. Photo / AP
The sheriff's office said several vehicles on Interstate 5 were struck by falling carriages and multiple drivers were injured. None were killed.
An official briefed on the investigation told the Associated Press that preliminary signs suggested Train 501 may have struck something before going off the track.
The official was not authorised to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Amtrak officials said "positive train control", an engineering device designed to stop the train before crashes, was not activated at the time.
Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below as some train cars remain on the tracks above. Photo / AP
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was too early to know what role high speed, if any, played in the crash.
Chris Karnes was on the train, three or four cars back from the front. "I'm not sure what got hit. I'm not sure what happened," Karnes said.
"It sounded like being on the inside of an aluminum can being crushed. And then we were not on the tracks anymore."
The train left Seattle about 6am, according to an Amtrak schedule, and was due in Portland about three-and-a-half hours later.
It was going 130km/h moments before the derailment, according to transitdocs.com, a website that maps Amtrak train locations and speeds using data from the railroad's train tracker app.
The maximum speed along the stretch of track, known as Point Defiance Bypass, is 127km/h, according to information about the project posted online by the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The possibility that the wreck was caused by something on the tracks fed into concerns voiced by local officials about the risk of high-speed trains crossing busy streets.
The mayor of a town near the derailment had warned about the danger of an accident at a public meeting only two weeks ago.
Cars from an Amtrak train that derailed above lay spilled onto Interstate 5 alongside smashed vehicles. Photo / AP
According to the Seattle Times, Lakewood Mayor Don Anderson opposed the new rail line, which had been an irregularly used freight line.
"I didn't predict a time, but I did say somebody is going to get killed," he said.
He said the number of crossings and how unfamiliar people in the area were with trains were his main concerns.
"We thought a train-vehicle collision was virtually inevitable."
This image from video provided by KOMO-TV, shows the site of an Amtrak train that derailed south of Seattle. Photo / AP
Daniel Konzelman, 24, was driving parallel to the train on his way to work as an accountant in Olympia. He was about 30 seconds ahead of the train on the freeway when he saw it derail.
Konzelman, who was driving with a friend, said he pulled off the freeway and ran down the tracks and over the bridge to get to the crash.
They saw three cars and a semi-truck on the freeway that had been damaged by the derailed train. There were carriages with their roofs ripped off, or tipped upside down, on both sides of the track or turned sideways on the bridge.
Police officials stand at the back of where an Amtrak train derailed above Interstate. Photo / AP
They climbed into train cars and found people hurt — some pinned underneath the train, others who appeared to be dead, he said.
If they were mobile and seemed stable, he helped them climb out. If they appeared seriously hurt, he tried to comfort them by talking to them.
"I just wanted to help people because I would want people to help me," he said.
An Amtrak train that derailed south of Seattle. Photo / AP
"I'm an Eagle Scout. I have a lot of first-aid training and emergency response training."
They stayed for nearly two hours before hitting the road again.
"I prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. I saw a little bit of both," he said.
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in the train accident in DuPont, Washington. Thank you to all of our wonderful First Responders who are on the scene. We are currently monitoring here at the White House.
The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!
President Donald Trump used the deadly derailment to call for more infrastructure spending in a tweet sent about three hours after the crash. He said the wreck, on a newly completed bypass, shows "more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly".
Eight people died in May 2015, when an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia.
The train was travelling at 164km/h in an 80km/h hour zone of curved tracks when it crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that crash was caused by the driver becoming distracted by radio transmissions.
