Speed Cited in Amtrak Derailment That Killed at Least 3 in Washington
DUPONT,
Wash. — A passenger train on a newly opened Amtrak route jumped the
tracks on an overpass south of Tacoma on Monday, slamming rail cars into
a busy highway, killing at least three people and injuring about 100
others, officials said.
The
derailment of Amtrak Train No. 501, making the inaugural run of a new
service from Seattle to Portland, dropped a 132-ton locomotive in the
southbound lanes of the Northwest’s busiest travel corridor, Interstate
5. Two passenger coaches also fell partly in the traffic lanes, and two
other coaches were left dangling off the bridge, one of them wedged
against a tractor-trailer. On the highway below lay five crumpled cars,
two semi trucks and huge chunks of concrete that were ripped away from
the damaged overpass.
