ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Object left on track could have caused train derailment

Author
AP,
Publish Date
Tue, 19 Dec 2017, 6:13AM
​

Object left on track could have caused train derailment

Author
AP,
Publish Date
Tue, 19 Dec 2017, 6:13AM

UPDATE 1.19PM: An Amtrak derailment that killed at least six people, could have been caused by an object on the railway.

The New York Post reports the accident, which left at least one carriage dangling onto the highway below, might have resulted from a stray piece of machinery left on the tracks.

The report carried with it a picture of what could be an axel from another train.

The state Department of Transportation posted information about the US$180.7 million project online that says the maximum speed along that stretch of track is 127 km/h.

Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above. Photo / AP

Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above. (Photo / AP)

Authorities are yet to pinpoint a cause for the crash, however the Associated Press reported track maintenance problems were unlikely to be an issue. Speed has not been ruled out as a factor.

The deaths "are all contained to the train". said Ed Troyer, the Pierce County Sheriff's Office spokesman. "It's pretty horrific."

Troyer said 13 of 14 carriages were derailed in the crash.

"A couple of cars are not safe enough to search," he said.

"We know that there's nobody alive in them at this point, but there are some other [fatalities] that we are probably going to find. We just don't know until they can shore up those train cars and get in there and search them."

About 77 people were taken to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties, officials said. Four suffered serious injuries, according to Cary Evans, spokesman for CHI Franciscan Health.

A semi-truck with visible damage to its hood sits parked on the shoulder just ahead of a car covered in mud and debris and with a smashed windshield just beyond where an Amtrak train. Photo / AP

A semi-truck with visible damage to its hood sits parked on the shoulder just ahead of a car covered in mud and debris and with a smashed windshield just beyond where an Amtrak train. (Photo / AP)

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you