At least six dead after train on new high-speed line falls on US highway
A TRAIN making the first run along a faster route has hurtled off an overpass in the US and spilled some of its carriages on to the road below, killing at least six people, authorities said.
Seventy-eight passengers and five crew members were aboard when the Amtrak train travelling at more than 80mph derailed about 40 miles south of Seattle, at DuPont, on a route that had raised safety concerns. The death toll is expected to rise.
An official briefed on the investigation said preliminary signs indicated that Train 501 may have struck something before going off the track.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said several vehicles on Interstate 5 were struck by falling train carriages and multiple motorists were injured. No motorists were reported killed.
Chris Karnes was on the train, three or four carriages from the front. He said the only part of the train remaining on the tracks was the rear locomotive.
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 two weeks ago.
Donald Trump used the 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”.
The President also offered “thoughts and prayers” for those involved in the derailment and thanked emergency services for their work at the scene.
The train was making the inaugural run on the new route as part of a $180 million (£134m) project designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound which is bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.
Track testing on the new route was said to have been completed in January and February.
The mayor of Lakewood, a city along the new route, predicted a deadly crash — but one involving a fast-moving train hitting a car or pedestrian at a 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,” Don Anderson said, according to Seattle TV station KOMO. The National Transportation Safety Board said a team of investigators was on its way to the scene from Washington DC.
The train was travelling at 81.1mph moments before the derailment, according to transitdocs.com, a website that maps Amtrak trains.
The maximum speed along the stretch of track, known as Point Defiance Bypass, is 79mph, according to information about the project posted online by Washington State Department of Transportation.
A spokesman for Providence St Peter Hospital in Olympia said 11 patients were being treated there, two of them in surgery and one in a serious condition.
Four hospitals said 50 people were being treated for injuries.