At Least 6 Killed In Amtrak Derailment Over Washington State Highway [Photos]

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An Amtrak passenger train plunged off an interstate highway overpass in Washington state Monday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens, officials said. 

At least two train cars crashed onto Interstate 5, striking numerous vehicles on the highway, Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, told reporters. He said no motorists were killed. 

“When we got to the scene, it was obvious there were some fatalities and there were a lot of injuries, and some people were able to get off the train,” Troyer said. 

Between 70 and 80 people were transported to local hospitals, said Chris Thomas, a spokesman for Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia. The hospital received 10 patients following the incident, all of whom have non-life-threatening injuries.

“Three required surgery. ... They were leg injuries,” Thomas told HuffPost. “The other seven are just being treated here at the hospital.”

The train was on its way from Seattle to Portland, Oregon, Amtrak said in a statement, and was carrying 78 passengers and five crew members.

First responders were treating the wreck as a mass-casualty incident, local CBS affiliate KIRO 7 reported. 

The derailment occurred around 7:40 a.m. local time near DuPont, Washington, roughly 50 miles southwest of Seattle, on the first day of a new regional high-speed rail service designed to shorten commutes, according to local news outlets. 

The Amtrak Cascades 501 service was approved to reach speeds of up to 79 mph, on a new route meant to bypass an area with heavy passenger train traffic, Reuters reported. But Train 501 was going 81.1 mph moments before the derailment Monday, according to Transitdocs.com, a website that maps Amtrak train locations and speeds.

Bella Dinh-Zarr, a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters during a news conference Monday afternoon that it was “too early” to tell how the train’s speed affected its derailment.

“We’d like to all express our deepest condolences to the family and friends and all of those affected by this tragic accident,” Dinh-Zarr said. “We are just launching our go team, we will have more information after we arrive on scene.”

The derailment comes after months of heated debate over the service’s implementation. The mayor of a town along the route recently warned the new service lacked safety features.

“Come back when there is that accident, and try to justify not putting in those safety enhancements, or you can go back now and advocate for the money to do it, because this project was never needed and endangers our citizens,” Lakewood Mayor Don Anderson told state Department of Transportation officials in early December.

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