Three people died and 65 were injured when an Amtrak train entered a curve at twice the posted speed in Washington state.
By Ashley Halsey III Ashley Halsey III Reporter covering national transportation Email Bio Follow May 21 at 6:39 PM An Amtrak train derailed in Washington state in December 2017 because the lack of an automatic braking system allowed the engineer to enter a 30-mile per hour curve too fast due to his inadequate training on the route and the equipment, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded Tuesday.
The board also said seat belts should be used aboard trains and that frontward and inward-facing recorders should be used in all train operations. The panel noted repeatedly that the crash could have been avoided if the automatic braking system known as Positive Train Control had been installed. Commonly called PTC, the system would kick in if an engineer were going too fast.
In addition to the deaths and injuries, the 7:30 a.m. crash on Dec. 18, 2017 near DuPont, caused more than $40 million in damage to the train and the vehicles on the highway below it. But Congress — faced with railroad lobbyists who said the cost would be exorbitant — was slow to act on the NTSB recommendation. It took one of the worst train wrecks in modern history to spur the lawmakers into action: the 2008 head-on collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train in a Los Angeles neighborhood that killed 25 people and injured 102.
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