Crew in Amtrak crash still hospitalized
Officials release ID of third victim killed
The two key crew members who could reveal what happened in a fatal Amtrak derailment remain hospitalized in Washington state and have not yet been interviewed by federal investigators.
One of the two men, who have not been identified, was a trainee familiarizing himself with the route and locomotive operations when the train barreled 80 mph into a curve with a posted speed limit of 30 mph. It also was the inaugural run for the train on tracks that had just be refurbished by the regional transit authority, which owned them.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said that emergency brakes appeared to have been triggered automatically — and not by the engineer — as the train careered into a sharp left-hand curve.
Three people were killed and more than 100 were taken to hospitals after one of two engines and several cars of the 12-car train bound from Seattle to Portland toppled from a bridge onto Interstate 5 below. Two of the victims — Zack Willhoite and Jim Hamre — were described as close friends and fellow train buffs.
Authorities on Wednesday identified the third victim as Benjamin Gran, 40, of Auburn, Washington.
Peter Knudsen of the NTSB said investigators were eager to interview the two men in the lead locomotive.
“A big question will be what we hear when we talk to the front-end crew,” he said, adding it was uncertain when the two crew members would be available to be interviewed.
In a similar 2015 Amtrak crash that killed eight passengers in Philadelphia, the NTSB determined that engineer was distracted by a radio report of rock throwing at another train and thought he already had passed a major curve that actually lay ahead of his train.
Knudsen stressed that in the Washington State train wreck, whether the engineer was distracted by conversation with the trainee was one of many questions that will be asked before federal investigators reach a conclusion.
“It’s one of many things we will be looking at,” Knudsen said.