Train track was never supposed to have deadly curve
The sharp 30 mph curve where an Amtrak train derailed in Washington this week was not supposed to be there at all, according to a new report.
An $11 billion Washington State government plan to speed up passenger and freight rail service throughout the Pacific Northwest called for an elimination of the turn. But that request was not included in the final design, once the state won federal funding for the Point Defiance railroad bypass south of Tacoma, Wash., The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The plan was ditched because the turn in question was deemed too costly to remove, the outlet reported, citing documents and state officials.
That decision proved deadly on Monday, when a speeding train navigating that same curve plunged off an overpass onto a busy interstate during an inaugural, high-speed run from Seattle to Portland Monday — killing three people and injuring more than 100, according to the report.
The section where the train derailed “includes unsuitable sharp curvature,” according to schematic documents obtained by the paper.
“A new connection, largely on structure because of differences in elevation, with a speed limit of one hundred mph will be required,” it said.
The existing curve had a speed limit of 30 mph. The train was barreling across the overpass at 80 mph just before it flew off the turn.
The Washington State Transportation Department is still planning to pursue upgrades to the bypass — including at the fatal curve — to allow higher speeds, a spokeswoman told the paper. However, the agency did not apply for funding to eliminate the curve because it wasn’t deemed necessary to support the number of round trips the state and Amtrak had planned for the corridor, she said.
Rail safety experts told the paper that the train should have been able to pass through the curve safely. Positive train control, a federally mandated system that could have stopped the crash, wasn’t operational, Amtrak and investigators told the outlet.
Meanwhile, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said on Friday that video aboard the derailed train revealed that “about six seconds prior to the derailment, the engineer made a comment regarding an over speed condition.”
It also did not appear that the engineer placed the train in emergency braking mode, according to the NTSB.
The crew aboard the train was not observed to have used any personal electronic devices during the video segment viewed by the investigators.
The final recorded speed of the train was 78 mph, the investigation revealed. The video cut out as the crew braced for impact.
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