Washington train 'travelled 80mph into 30mph bend'

The Amtrak train which derailed south of Seattle, killing three people and injuring dozens more, was travelling at 80mph in a 30mph zone, investigations have revealed.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said information from the event data recorder in the rear locomotive provided information about the train’s speed at the time of the derailment in Washington state.

Authorities say at least three people were killed and dozens injured when the train derailed early on Monday morning, spilling train carriages onto the busy Interstate 5 road.

NTSB board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said it is not yet known what caused the train to derail and that “it’s too early to tell” why it was going so fast.

Federal investigators are continuing their inquiries at the scene.

Positive train control – the technology that can slow or stop a speeding train – was not in use on this stretch of track, according to Amtrak president Richard Anderson.

He spoke on a conference call with reporters, saying he was “deeply saddened by all that has happened today”.

Aleksander Kristiansen, a 24-year-old exchange student at the University of Washington from Copenhagen, was going to Portland to visit the city for the day.

“I was just coming out of the bathroom when the accident happened. My car just started shaking really, really badly,” he said.

The back of his train car was wide open because it had separated from the rest of the train, so he and others were able to jump out to safety. He was at about the middle of the train, either the sixth or seventh car, he said, and was “one of the lucky ones”.

President Donald Trump used the deadly derailment to call for more infrastructure spending in a tweet sent about three hours after the accident. He said the wreck shows “more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly”. The accident happened on a newly completed bypass.

The train was making the inaugural run on the new route as part of a 180 million dollar (£134 million) project designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound that is bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

Our deepest sympathies and most heartfelt prayers are with the victims of the train derailment in Washington State. We are closely monitoring the situation and coordinating with local authorities... pic.twitter.com/Gyf5BdVm4G

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2017