First responders work at the scene of an Amtrak train that derailed south of Seattle. Photo / AP
First responders work at the scene of an Amtrak train that derailed south of Seattle. Photo / AP
The Amtrak train which derailed during its first-ever run along a faster new route was travelling at 130km/h 400m before it reached curve with a 48km/h speed limit and disaster struck.
Three people were killed and around 100 were injured when the train hurtled off an overpass on Monday (US time) near Tacoma and spilled some of its cars onto the highway below on a route that had raised safety concerns, the Daily Mail reported.
Cars from an Amtrak train that derailed lie spilled onto Interstate 5. Photo / AP
A website that maps location and speed using data from Amtrak's train tracker app showed the train was going 130km/h about 400m from the point where it derailed, where the speed limit is significantly lower.
A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 127km/h to 48km/h for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, which is where the train went off the tracks.
The chart, dated February 7, 2017, was submitted to the 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.
Kimberly Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, confirmed to the AP that the speed limit at the point where the train derailed is 48km/h. Speed signs are posted two miles before the speed zone and just before the speed zone approaching the curve, she said.
An official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that preliminary signs indicate that 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.
In addition, the new high-tech Positive Train Control (PTC) system that each of the brand Amtrak Cascade engines are equipped with was not switched on.
The PTC computer system which prevents a train from exceeding a speed limit and can detect objects or collisions ahead is fitted to all the new Charger locomotives on the Seattle to Portland line.
This aerial image from video provided by KOMO-TV, shows the site of an Amtrak train that derailed south of Seattle. Photo / AP
However, according to CNN, at a conference call today, Amtrak President and Co-CEO Richard Anderson said Positive Train Control was not activated on the tracks at the time.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said thirteen of the train's fourteen cars derailed. One of them crashed onto freeway below, hitting five cars and two semi-trucks. Multiple motorists were injured, but none killed.
City of DuPont Fire Chief Larry Creekmore also says more than 100 patients transported for treatment.
A US official who was briefed on the investigation said earlier that at least six people were killed. It wasn't immediately clear how to reconcile the numbers.
One of those injured was 38-year-old Del DeSart, from Astoria, Oregon, who was returning from a Seattle Seahawks game.
He was traveling in the third car when suddenly he felt the train shaking - then everything went dark.
His wife Meagan, 38, told DailyMail.com he usually drives to the games, but decided to take the train on Monday because he thought it would be safer.
"He felt the train was shaking back and forth and he started to hold on very tightly," she said from Allenmore hospital in Tacoma. "He was in the third car and it completely derailed - it flipped over.
"He was pinned under train parts. The person behind him didn't make it."
Meagan rushed to his hospital bedside, where she found him "very beat up". Del, a buyer for a hospital, is currently undergoing tests, including x-rays and a CT scan, but is in stable condition.
"He is pretty traumatised," she added.
A car covered in mud and debris and with a smashed windshield and other damage sits parked on the shoulder just beyond where an Amtrak train crashed. Photo / AP
Train 501 was going south to Portland, Oregon when it derailed while crossing a bridge over Interstate 5 near DuPont, Washington around 7:40am Pacific Time, causing at least one car to fall onto the freeway below.
The train was making the inaugural run on the new Cascade route as part of a US$180.7 million project designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound that's bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.
The Amtrak schedule called for the train to leave Seattle around 6am and arrive in Portland about three and a half hours later.
The new route includes a bypass built on an existing inland rail line that runs along Interstate 5 from Tacoma to DuPont, near where Train 501 derailed. Track testing was completed in January and February in advance of Monday's launch, according to 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.
Local officials were wary about the new line, voicing their concerns about the high-speed trains going through curves at top speed at a meeting earlier this month.
The Amtrak train was making the first-ever run. Photo / AP
The mayor of Lakewood, Washington, a city along the new route, predicted a deadly crash — but one involving a fast-moving train hitting a car or pedestrian at a grade-crossing.
At a recent public meeting, he called on state planners to build overpass-like rail structures instead of having trains cross busy streets.
"Come back when there is that accident and try to justify not putting in those safety enhancements," Anderson said, according to Seattle television station KOMO. "Or you can go back now and advocate for the money to do it, because this project was never needed and endangers our citizens."
The NTSB will be investigating the cause of the crash, but most won't be on the scene for several hours because they're flying commercial. The 20-person go team's flight is scheduled for 6.55pm and its a five-hour flight.
When they finally get to the scene, the investigators will obtain the black box which will show how fast the train was going when it derailed and whether the engineer braked when they needed to. They will also look at the condition of the tracks and question the train crew.
Mary Schiavo, a transportation analyst for CNN, hinted that the curve in the road might be to blame for the derailment.
'This train was about to enter or was entering a curve and while they had to modify the tracks and test the tracks - and all of this work was done at the beginning of December - local officials in Washington were highly critical of sending a train at this speed through his area ... they specifically warned that it needed to slow down at the curves in the track.
"I always like to say, whether its a train crash or a plane crash, the laws of physics are the only laws you can't break. And while they tested it ... testing as opposed to running a full-sized, fully-loaded train over the track changes the physics. It changes the dynamics of the forces that you have in that curve.
"It's like racing a motorcycle. As you approached that curve, the centrifugal forces on the train change dramatically and I bet the NTSB is gonna pay a lot of attention to the topography and whether the train was entering a curve," Schiavo said.
"I'm still figuring that out," the engineer responds. "We've got cars everywhere and down onto the highway."
Passenger Chris Karnes was on his way to do some Christmas shopping with his boyfriend with the derailment happened.
He told KIRO that he was on the third for fourth car, and said the emergency doors were not functioning so they had to kick out the train windows to escape.
Photos from the scene show three to four cars rolled off the track and into the woods on the side of the road.
"We had just passed the city of DuPont and it seemed like we were going around a curve," Karnes said. "All of a sudden, we felt this rocking and creaking noise, and it felt like we were heading down a hill. The next thing we know, we're being slammed into the front of our seats, windows are breaking, we stop, and there's water gushing out of the train. People were screaming.
"The tracks for this line were supposed to be upgraded to be able to handle higher speeds," he continued. "I'm not sure what happened at this juncture."
Maria Hetland was driving to work on the northbound lanes when traffic slowed and she noticed the crash.
"As we were coming up the hill I rolled my window down and saw the train," she told the Seattle Times. "It was awful."
Hetland said she could see people walking around the roadway near the derailment, and people sitting on the side of the freeway wrapped in blankets.
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 then ran down along the tracks and over the bridge to get to the scene. They saw three cars and a semi-truck on the freeway that had been damaged by the derailment. There were train cars with their roofs ripped off, or that were tipped upside down, on both sides of the track or turned sideways on the bridge.
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. "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.
Alex Rozier, a King TV reporter, told NBC News that he got off the train about 10 minutes before the derailment, after taking footage early on in the inaugural trip.
He said there were many people on the train for its first trip, including rail enthusiasts. Passengers were given commemorative lanyards for the journey.
The new service is supposed to make the journey between Portland and Seattle in 3 hours and 20 minutes, about 10 minutes faster than previous services.
Part of the reason why the new route is faster is because it diverges from the main line on a 14-mile bypass between DuPont and Tacoma.
The new track is a straighter line so the train can go faster, while the old track was windy and made the journey slower.
The bypass already existed but had the tracks needed to be updated for high-speed trains, which heat up the metal on the tracks more significantly
Monday's inaugural trip was the culmination of the US$181million project, that also included construction of a new train station at Tacoma.
Family of victims are being asked to report to the DuPont City Hall to be reunited with their loved ones. They are being told not to come to the scene.
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 Trump used the deadly derailment to call for more infrastructure spending in a tweet sent about three hours after the accident. 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."
Ten minutes later, he expressed his sympathies for those who were killed.
"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," he added.
DESPERATE EMERGENCY CALL FROM CREW OF AMTRAK TRAIN
The call made by a member of the crew of the Amtrak train in the seconds after the deadly crash has been released.
The call is believed to have been made by the engineer.
CREW OF TRAIN: "Amtrak 501 emergency, emergency, emergency... we are on the ground (inaudible) We are on the bridge (inaudible) ...on the freeway."
"We need EMS ASAP. Looks like they are already starting to show up."
