Amtrak train in deadly wreck was going about 130km/h in 50km/h zone

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Two damaged train carriages are removed from the scene of an Amtrak train crash onto Interstate 5 on Tuesday in DuPont, Washington. Photo: AP

Published: 8:07am, 20 Dec 2017Updated: 8:07am, 20 Dec 2017

The us National Transportation Safety Board says the train that derailed Monday as it made its way from Seattle to Portland was going more that twice the posted speed limit when it jumped the tracks on a bridge over a busy interstate highway.

“Preliminary indications are that the train was travelling 80 miles per hour (129km/h) in a 30 mile per hour track,” NTSB member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Tuesday.

Three people where killed and more than 100 injured when one of two engines and 12 cars derailed, many of them tumbling onto a busy interstate highway below. Reports originally put the death toll at six.

Cars from an Amtrak train that derailed above lie spilled onto Interstate 5 on Monday in DuPont, Washington. Photo: AP

As rain poured down Tuesday, cranes moved in to clear the damaged cars from Interstate 5, one of the busiest highways on the West Coast, which authorities said may remained closed for several days.

NTSB officials said that investigators had not yet spoken with the train crew and they were uncertain whether the crew was familiar with the speed limits in the zone. The train was making its inaugural run on a 23km stretch of recently refurbished track.

Two of the three people who died Monday were identified as Zack Willhoite and Jim Hamre, both train buffs who were eager to be aboard the inaugural run of the Amtrak train over the new route.