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Report: At least 6 dead after Amtrak train derails from bridge onto Interstate 5 near Olympia
Several people were killed Monday morning when an Amtrak train derailed and fell off a bridge over Interstate 5 near Mounts Road between Lakewood and Olympia. The Associated Press, citing an unnamed U.S. official, reported that at least six people were killed in the crash. Gov. Jay Inslee has called a state of emergency in response to the derailment.
Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told news media that there were fatalities on the train and that motorists had been injured, but not killed. A total of 77 people were sent to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties, according to CHI Franciscan Health, which operates numerous hospitals in Western Washington. Four of the injured are "level red" patients, with critical injuries. The injured are being taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, St. Claire Hospital in Lakewood, St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor and Tacoma General Hospital and Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
There were 78 passengers and five crew members on the train when it derailed, according to Amtrak.
The train was running on a new, faster service route using a new bypass. This was the first day that the new route was used.
Also at CNN. Amtrak statement about service disruption.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 19 2017, @01:05AM (27 children)
CNN linky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @02:46AM (6 children)
Was he asked or was he "volunteering" this information. Or was the reported who asked a shill? Also I doubt that boondoggle would save shit, just cost untold millions. If it wirked at all it wouldnt let the train leave the station. These are neither bullet trains nor bullet train tracks, they need to fuxk off with this fantasy they can make the trains run faster and jerkiff thinking about all the saved "carbon."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 19 2017, @04:10AM (3 children)
This seems to fall in the "Corporate efficiency" category (aka "corner cutting and cost saving" - this time almost literally, as the train seems to have entered a corner with a "cutting" speed).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday December 19 2017, @05:27AM (2 children)
What part of this was Corporate?
Government train.
Government tracks.
Government operator.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday December 19 2017, @05:56AM (1 child)
If you stick "local" in front of "Government tracks", then you are right [wikipedia.org].
I needed to look over the details, took me a while. Until then, "corporation bashing" is right most of the time; when it's not, it's a good exercise anyway (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @04:57PM
Corporations are Government created fictions. Corporation problems are Government problems are corruption problems, it is wise to not forget this.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:41AM (1 child)
It was not traveling anywhere near bullet train speed. At the time of derailment it was going almost as fast as the top speed of our oldest, slowest trains here in Denmark. And even our fastest trains are slow compared to the rest of Europe - and only the French TGV go as fast as a bullet train.
The derailed train was going just under 130 km/h.
Our slowest trains have a top speed of 130 km/h.
Our fastest train have a top speed around 200 km/h.
German ICE have a top speed of 280 km/h
French TGV has a top speed of 320 km/h according to Wikipedia, though I think it was increased to 350 km/h.
Bullet trains (Shinkansen) also have a top speed of 320 km/h.
Incidentally, 130 km/h used to be the top speed of certain steam locomotives.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @02:29PM
That's what the train tracker said, but it shouldn't be true. That particular curve has a speed limit of only 30mph. So, if the train was going as fast as the tracker suggests, then that would certainly be sufficient to cause a derailment.
The worst thing though is that this wasn't really needed. It's projected to save about 10 minutes each trip, but destroy the view and because of the location of the tracks, it's likely to increase fatal crashes with pedestrians and traffic.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @02:58AM (18 children)
Here, this is better:
http://www.breitbart.com/live/amtrak-train-derails-near-dupont-washington/ [breitbart.com]
It even includes presidential tweets that mention the infrastructure plan.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday December 19 2017, @04:36AM (14 children)
It indeed shows how well anchored is the orange one to reality.
His response [twitter.com]: "It is all the more reason why we must immediately start fixing the infrastructure of the United States".
He's speaking in the context of an accident that took place on brand-new tracks.
When brand new thingies require immediate fixing, one needs to... exactly what? Deregulate the industry?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday December 19 2017, @05:19AM (3 children)
Brand New track WITHOUT PTC because the DOT of two democratic states got excused by the Obama administration. Amtrak is nothing but a contractor used to operate the Government owned train on government owned track. Amtrak is a quasi-governmet organization.
Regulations seem to apply to everyone except the government.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday December 19 2017, @05:50AM
Except the track segment that should have had activated the PTC are not owned by Amtrak [thenewstribune.com] but by Sound Transit [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Tuesday December 19 2017, @07:49PM
>>> DOT of two democratic states got excused by the Obama administration
... just like all of the other states, because the Republican congress kept arguing that ANY REGULATION IS BAD, and besides if the REGULATION deadline is next year why should anyone spend any money or effort to conform to the REGULATION before hand? It's a foolproof tactic: They f*** things up and then point to them yelling "Hey, this is f***ed up!"
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 19 2017, @07:59PM
Brand New track WITHOUT PTC...
The sad irony is that those tracks did have PTC but it was still being tested. [usatoday.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @05:41AM (5 children)
Maybe the metal got replaced.
Take a look at the railway bridge. It is obviously decades old. It has the usual rust, graffiti, old style, and mature tree growth on the embankments. The railroad ties look to have a layer of rust and grease down the middle.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday December 19 2017, @06:04AM (4 children)
The rails, ties, ballast, signals were all rebuilt. It was part of a two State project, for which Sound Transit acted as the local project contractor in exchange for future trackage rights.
The roadbed and overpasses existed for decades, and we're mostly disused of late.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Informative) by kazzie on Tuesday December 19 2017, @11:05AM (1 child)
Replacing the bridge would probably have been very expensive, so it would have been refurbished instead (checked it's structurally sound). This means that the railway's alignment over the bridge is quite tight, effectively a chicane. See this picture for the curve on approach to the bridge (and the 30mph speed limit sign): (screenshot [vgy.me])
(Score: 3, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday December 19 2017, @04:43PM
Man, that's a hairpin for a train travelling 129kmh.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @03:14PM (1 child)
You aren't politicizing a tragedy, are you?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday December 19 2017, @05:19PM
Wait until people realize that the driver used a Deadly Weapon that was somewhat concealed ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:46AM (3 children)
If your brand new tracks cannot handle trains going as fast as our oldest slowest trains, you really need to start pouring money into infrastructure.
(Score: 5, Informative) by kazzie on Tuesday December 19 2017, @10:58AM (2 children)
New track on an old bridge. It sounds like we can discount a fault on one of the rails, but there is reportedly a significantly lower speed limit at that point, and that must be there for a reason.
Two likely reasons for a speed limit are a weight limit on the railway bridge (slow down to avoid damaging the bridge), and the fact that the bridge is on a curve (slow down to avoid flying off the rails). (A partial derailment could have happened some miles up the track, and only led to a complete derailment where the track curved over the bridge.
But this quote from AP [apnews.com] is the most telling I've found:
This situation seems to have similarities to the tram derailment in London in 2016 [wikipedia.org] and Santiago de Compostella train derailment in 2013 [wikipedia.org], where, for varying reasons, the train had not slowed down enough to go around a curve without derailing.
There are technologies that can be installed to ensure that if a driver doesn't slow down at a speed restriction the brakes get applied automatically. The common version in the UK is Automatic Train Protection [wikipedia.org], which is installed on some high-speed train lines. Newer technologies such as Positive Train Conrtol (North America) and the European Rail Traffic Management System are being developed and implemented, but ATP, PTC and ERTMS are expensive technologies. Money is always an issue with these things.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Tuesday December 19 2017, @07:52PM (1 child)
Adding Spuyten Duyvil in New York City to your list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2013_Spuyten_Duyvil_derailment [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday December 20 2017, @01:29PM
Thanks. Most of my railway knowledge is on the eastern side of the pond; I'd not heard of Spuyten Duyvil. (Now I'll go off and work out how to pronounce it...)
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday December 19 2017, @02:43PM (2 children)
It is disturbing that you would post a link to a BreitBart news article which completely fails to identify how Obama and Hillary's emails are to blame for this horrible train derailment.
Please be more careful in the future.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @04:55PM (1 child)
Almost as shocking that the CNN article had no mention of the Russian hack that caused thew derailment.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday December 19 2017, @05:15PM
NPR is all about UFOs today. That's a good break from Trump/Russia/Hillary, and could totally explain critical infrastructure being destroyed.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday December 19 2017, @07:26AM
Has ISIS claimed responsibility yet?