Train probe looks at distraction, speed
UNITED STATES: Investigators are looking into whether the Amtrak engineer whose speeding train plunged off an overpass in Washington state, killing at least three people, was distracted by the presence of an employee in training next to him in the locomotive, a federal official has said.
The official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said yesterday investigators wanted to know whether the engineer lost ‘‘situational awareness’’ because of the second person in the cab.
Preliminary information indicated that the emergency brake on the train went off automatically and was not manually activated by the engineer, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Bella Dinh-zarr said.
The train was travelling at 129kmh in a 48kmh zone when it ran off the rails along a curve south of Seattle on Tuesday, sending some of its carriages plummeting on to an interstate highway below, Dinh-zarr said, citing data from the locomotive’s event recorder.
Dinh-zarr said it was not yet known what caused the train to derail, and that it was too early in the investigation to conclude why it was going so fast.
There were two people in the train’s cab at the time of the crash, the engineer and an in-training conductor who was familiarising himself with the route, Dinh-zarr said.
The train, with 85 passengers and crew, was making the inaugural run along a fast new bypass route. Investigators were looking into what training was required of the crew to operate on the new route, said Ted Turpin, the lead NTSB investigator of the crash. At least some of the crew had been doing runs on the route for two weeks prior to the crash.
Positive train control – technology that can automatically slow or stop a speeding train – was not in use on that stretch of track. US regulators have been pressing railways for years to install such technology, and some have done so, but the deadline has been extended repeatedly at the industry’s request and is now set for the end of 2018.
Dinh-zarr said it was too early in the investigation to say whether positive train control would have prevented Tuesday’s tragedy.
In addition to those killed, more than 70 people were injured. As of yesterday, 35 were still hospitalised, including 21 in a critical or serious condition.
Two of the dead were identified as train buffs and members of the rail advocacy group All Aboard Washington, who were excited to be on board for the inaugural run. ‘‘It’s pretty devastating. We’re having a tough time,’’ said All Aboard Washington executive director Lloyd Flem. –AP