Amtrak’s co-CEO apologized profusely for the high-speed train derailment that hurled passenger cars onto a freeway, killing three people and injuring 100.
“It’s not acceptable that we are involved in these kinds of accidents. We are terribly sorry to the people that are involved,” Richard Anderson said.
The passenger train derailed Monday after careening around a curve at almost three times the speed limit.
Latest developments
— All three victims have been identified. They are Benjamin Gran, Jim Hamre and Zack Willhoite.
— All crew members are hospitalized and the National Transportation Safety Board is setting up interviews with them.
— At least 24 people injured in the crash are still hospitalized, officials said.
— The emergency brake appeared to have been automatically activated, rather than by the engineer during the accident, NTSB member Bella Dinh-Zarr said.
— Two people were in the cab in the front locomotive during the crash, she said. The engineer was joined by a conductor who was learning the new route, she said. Amtrak’s Anderson said that is not unusual.
— The engineer had been on this stretch of track before, NTSB lead accident investigator Ted Turpin said. Investigators don’t yet know how many hours of previous travel that involved.
— Data recorders from the front and rear locomotives have been recovered, Dinh-Zarr said. Cameras from the train were damaged and have been sent to Washington, DC, to see whether video can be retrieved.
— Some of the lanes of Interstate 5 that have been closed since the derailment spilled onto the highway will reopen Wednesday night, the department of transportation tweeted.
Questions about speed control systems
It’s still unclear why the train was traveling 80 mph in a 30-mph zone, said Dinh-Zarr.
Adding to the dismay: Positive train control, the technology that can automatically slow down a speeding train, wasn’t activated.
Instead, that segment of tracks in DuPont, Washington, had centralized traffic control, Dinh-Zarr said.
“CTC cannot enforce speed restrictions on a train like PTC can,” she said. “The locomotive was in the process of getting a system of PTC installed but it was not yet functional.”
Now, victims’ families and officials are perplexed about why the tragedy happened.
“There are a thousand unanswered questions about this right now,” said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, referring to the accident. “One of the questions is, could that speed control have made a difference? We don’t know that for sure at the moment either.”
On Wednesday, the governor tweeted that Amtrak’s Anderson had committed to paying for the impacts of the derailment.
“Those costs include all the medical and incidental expenses incurred by those injured and their families, the cleanup and repair of the roadway, and the restoration of passenger rail service,” Inslee wrote.
The governor said he brought up the implementation of PTC and Anderson said Amtrak would try to have it operational “as soon as possible and before the December 31, 2018, federal deadline.”
The victims
On Wednesday, the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office identified Benjamin Gran, 40, from Auburn, Washington, as one of the three men killed.
The two other victims were identified as Jim Hamre, 61, and Zack Willhoite, 35, the Rail Passengers Association said. Hamre and Willhoite wanted to experience the first trip on the new service route.
The two friends traveled to ride trains together, CNN affiliate KIRO reported. They were also members of All Aboard Washington, a rail advocacy group in their home state.
“Jim was among the country’s most respected and effective rail advocates and a good friend and mentor to me. I will miss his counsel, and our community is poorer for his loss,” Rail Passengers Association President Jim Mathews said in a statement. “Both Jim and Zack have been advocates of transit and passenger rail for decades, and we can’t thank them enough for their work.”
Willhoite worked as an IT customer service support specialist for the public transit agency in Pierce County, Washington.
Those who survived were injured and severely shaken.
“It was like being inside an exploding bomb,” passenger Charlie Heebner, 79, told CNN affiliate KOMO.
He and his wife, Beverly, had been looking forward to the route’s inaugural run. But their adventure was soon marred by carnage. They were catapulted across the train car and had to crawl to safety.
“There was this body lying there,” Beverly Heebner said. “I mean he hardly had any clothes on, the clothes had just been ripped off of him. And he was obviously dead.”
‘Have to assure people’s confidence in rail transit’
Investigators will likely examine the track, human performance, operations and the mechanics of the train. The track in Washington state had undergone millions of dollars of improvements and weeks of testing.
“We have to assure people’s confidence in rail transit,” said Gov. Inslee. “It’s very difficult to understand but rail transit is still the safest method of transit today. But that’s not good enough for us. We want zero accidents and zero tragedies of this nature.”
The NTSB has recommended the use of PTC for decades. Railroad companies have until the end of 2018 and a possible extension to 2020 to implement the system, which is extremely costly.
Amtrak CEO Anderson told reporters on Tuesday: “It’s not clear yet from the NTSB whether PTC would have prevented the accident or not. We really must wait for the NTSB to give us that information.”