Three dead, some 100 hurt in US train derailment
At least three people were killed and about 100 others were taken to hospital when a passenger train traveling on a new route derailed Monday in Washington State, police said, cited by AFP.
“There are a lot of critical injuries and so we won’t know until we get updates from the hospital,” Washington State Police spokeswoman Brooke Bova told reporters as she gave the toll, when asked about whether there would be more victims.
Federal officials confirmed an Amtrak train was hurtling 50 mph (80 kph) over the speed limit when it careened off an overpass south of Seattle.
Bella Dinh-zarr, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said at a Monday night news conference that information from the event data recorder in the rear locomotive showed the train was traveling at 80 mph (129 kph) in a 30 mph zone when it derailed. Mangled train cars ended up on top of each other, and one hung precariously over the freeway, AP reported. The train was carrying 77 passengers and seven crew members, state police said. It derailed in Dupont about halfway between Tacoma and the state capital, Olympia, on a curve that passes over busy Interstate 5 at about 7:40 a.m. (1540 GMT).
All but one of the train’s 14 rail cars jumped tracks, plunging off a bridge onto a busy highway, where they hit five motor vehicles and two trucks, police said.
Commuters and emergency workers alike rushed to help survivors.