5:00 EST PM UPDATE: DUPONT, Wash. (AP) — Critical safety technology designed to automatically slow or stop trains that are going too fast was not working on a section of track outside of Seattle where an Amtrak train derailed, killing three people.
Sound Transit said Tuesday that the company was on schedule to have positive train control installed and operational in the spring, ahead of a December 2018 federal deadline.
The system would be able to take over control of a train when an engineer is distracted or incapacitated.
Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said the “vast majority” of equipment needed had been installed but not fully operational along the tracks and trains in the 14.5-mile (23.3-kilometer) section of line where the derailment occurred.
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DUPONT, Wash. (AP) — Authorities say they’re starting to move train cars that derailed outside Seattle and hurtled onto a highway below, killing three people.
Capt. Dan Hall with the Washington State Patrol says the cars will be loaded onto trucks starting Tuesday and taken to a secure facility as the National Transportation Safety Board investigates.
State Transportation Department spokesman Travis Phelps says Interstate 5 will be closed through Tuesday night and could be shut down for several days as officials finish the investigation at the scene.
He says the next step is assessing the overpass and the road below.
The Amtrak train derailed during its inaugural run along a new faster route. U.S. investigators say they haven’t determined a cause of the crash but revealed that the train was traveling 80 mph in a 30 mph zone.
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