Amtrak crash investigators look at trainee ‘distraction’
INVESTIGATORS are looking into whether the Amtrak engineer whose speeding train plunged off an overpass, killing at least three people, was distracted by the presence of an employee-in-training next to him in the locomotive, a federal official says.
The official said investigators want to know whether the engineer lost “situational awareness” because of the second person in the cab. Preliminary information indicated the emergency brake on the Amtrak train that derailed in Washington state went off automatically and was not manually activated by the engineer, National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said.
The train was hurtling at 130km/h in a 48km/h zone when it ran off the rails along a curve south of Seattle, sending some of its cars plummeting on to an interstate highway below.
Skid marks from the train’s wheels show where it left the track. It is not yet known what caused the train to derail.
Investigators will talk to the engineer and other crew members and review the event data record from the lead locomotive as well as an identical device from the rear engine.
Investigators are also trying to get images from two onboard cameras that were damaged in the crash.