Amtrak safety record under scrutiny even before deadly derailment

Amtrak engineer remarked on train speed 6 seconds before crash: NTSB http://reut.rs/2BRkVha Reuters) - Six seconds before an Amtrak train derailed off a bridge and onto a highway near Seattle, the engineer remarked that the train was speeding, U.S. investigators said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The scene where an Amtrak passenger train derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5 in DuPont, Washington, December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola The engineer then applied the brakes but apparently not the emergency brake, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a statement after retrieving and reviewing data from the data recorder and inward- and outward-facing cameras. Sponsored Monday’s crash south of Seattle killed three people and sent about 100 others to hospitals. All 12 cars and one of the two engines jumped the tracks at a curve, sending some cars tumbling from a bridge onto an interstate highway. The board previously said the train was going about 80 miles per hour (129 km per hour) in a 30-mph zone. On Friday it said the final recorded speed of the locomotive was 78 mph. ADVERTISING The train’s video cameras were damaged in the crash but investigators were able to download the contents with the manufacturer’s help at the NTSB lab in Washington, the board said in a statement. “About six seconds prior to the derailment, the engineer made a comment regarding an over speed condition,” the board said. “The engineer’s actions were consistent with the application of the locomotive’s brakes just before the recording ended. It did not appear the engineer placed the brake handle in emergency-braking mode,” the board said. The cameras did not show the crew using any personal electronic devices, the board said. Such use is of interest since a Southern California Metrolink commuter train crashed into a freight train in 2008, killing 25 people and injuring 111 others. The board determined the engineer was distracted by text messaging. Amtrak President Richard Anderson on Friday urged faster national rollout of another safety measure, Positive Train Control (PTC), that can automatically slow speeding trains and might have prevented the Washington accident. PTC must be installed on all U.S. trains and tracks by the end of 2018. It was not operational on the track, owned by the Sound Transit commuter rail, where the Amtrak train derailed. “It is imperative that the rail industry urgently work together to get PTC activated on the national network as soon as possible, and certainly by the December 2018 federal deadline, if not before,” Anderson said in a statement. About half of Amtrak’s locomotives and two-thirds of its track had PTC as of June, U.S. data show. Reporting by Daniel Trotta in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Susan Thomas =================== The Latest: Train's emergency brake automatically activated The Latest: Train's emergency brake automatically activated The Associated Press December 19, 2017 06:50 PM UPDATED 5 MINUTES AGO DUPONT, Wash. The Latest on an Amtrak train derailment in Washington state (all times local): 3:50 p.m. U.S. investigators say preliminary information indicates that the emergency brake on the Amtrak train that derailed in Washington state went off automatically. National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr told reporters Tuesday that the brake was not manually activated by the engineer. She says they're reviewing the event data recorder from the lead locomotive after having already retrieved the device from the rear engine, which showed the train was going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. Dinh-Zarr confirmed two people were in the cab: the engineer and a conductor who was training. Federal officials also say the conductor had been qualified to operate the train in the area in the last couple of weeks, but the NTSB is looking into the process. ___ 2 p.m. Critical safety technology designed to automatically slow or stop trains that are going too fast was not working on a section of track outside of Seattle where an Amtrak train derailed, killing three people. Sound Transit said Tuesday that the company was on schedule to have positive train control installed and operational in the spring, ahead of a December 2018 federal deadline. The system would be able to take over control of a train when an engineer is distracted or incapacitated. Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said the "vast majority" of equipment needed had been installed but not fully operational along the tracks and trains in the 14.5-mile (23.3-kilometer) section of line where the derailment occurred. ___ 11:30 a.m. A relative says a rail advocate is one of the three people killed in the deadly Amtrak derailment in Washington state. Rachel Topper said Tuesday that she has been notified of the death of her uncle Jim Hamre in Monday's crash. Topper said the family has no further comment. In a Facebook post, she said they were heartbroken and that Hamre will be missed by many. Lloyd Flem, executive director of rail advocacy organization All Aboard Washington, says Hamre retired a few years ago as a civil engineer at the Washington Transportation Department. He says Hamre lived with his mother in Puyallup. Another rail advocate, Zack Willhoite, also died when the train plunged off an overpass and onto Interstate 5 south of Seattle on Monday. The train was making its first run on faster route. ___ 11:25 a.m. Authorities say they're starting to move train cars that derailed outside Seattle and hurtled onto a highway below, killing three people. Capt. Dan Hall with the Washington State Patrol says the cars will be loaded onto trucks starting Tuesday and taken to a secure facility as the National Transportation Safety Board investigates. State Transportation Department spokesman Travis Phelps says Interstate 5 will be closed through Tuesday night and could be shut down for several days as officials finish the investigation at the scene. He says the next step is assessing the overpass and the road below. The Amtrak train derailed during its inaugural run along a new faster route. U.S. investigators say they haven't determined a cause of the crash but revealed that the train was traveling 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. ___ 10:35 a.m. A U.S. official says investigators are examining whether an Amtrak engineer was distracted when a speeding train derailed, killing three people and sending several rail cars flying off an overpass. The official said Tuesday that in addition to the engineer, there was another employee training in the train's cab Monday. The official says investigators are looking into whether the engineer lost "situational awareness." The official wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Audio dispatch in which a crew member discusses injuries to the engineer mentions a second person in the front of the train, who was also hurt. ___ 9:14 a.m. A victim in the deadly Amtrak derailment in Washington state has been identified as an employee of a local transit agency and a rail advocate. Pierce Transit released a statement saying that Zack Willhoite, a customer service support specialist, was killed in Monday's derailment. Authorities say three people died and dozens were injured when the train plunged off an overpass over Interstate 5 south of Seattle. The train was making its inaugural run. Pierce Transit says Willhoite was "admired by his colleagues." Lloyd Flem, executive director of All Aboard Washington, says Willhoite was a rail advocate and it was a given that he would be on the trip. Federal investigators say they haven't determined a cause of the derailment but revealed that the train was travelling 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. ___ 8:35 a.m. Crews have removed train cars involved in a deadly Amtrak derailment from a railway overpass in Washington state. Authorities say there are three confirmed deaths. Dozens were injured. The train cars were loaded Tuesday onto flatbed trucks and drive away on Interstate 5. Authorities say a total of 13 train cars jumped the tracks early Monday south of Seattle. The Amtrak train careened off the overpass above Interstate 5 during its inaugural run along a new bypass route. The train carried 85 passengers and crew members. Federal investigators say they haven't determined a cause of the derailment but revealed late Monday that the train was travelling 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. Investigators are on the scene. A worker walks along a damaged train car atop a flat bed trailer taken from the scene of Monday's fatal Amtrak train crash onto Interstate 5 Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in DuPont, Wash. The Amtrak train that plunged off an overpass south of Seattle was hurtling 50 mph over the speed limit when it jumped the track, federal investigators said. Elaine Thompson AP Photo Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/business/national-business/article190558744.html#storylink=cpy http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/business/national-business/article190558744.html ================ David Shepardson, Daniel Trotta 5 Min Read (Reuters) - The fatal derailment of an Amtrak train south of Seattle on Monday is likely to intensify scrutiny of the national passenger railroad company’s safety record, which was already under the microscope following a series of fatal incidents. The scene where an Amtrak passenger train derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5 in DuPont, Washington, U.S. December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said late on Monday that a data recorder retrieved from the rear locomotive showed the train was traveling at 80 miles (130 km) an hour in a 30-mile-per hour zone when it jumped the tracks. Sponsored The NTSB said it was too soon to say if that contributed to the crash, which killed at least three people, and it could take months for the board’s investigators to reach a conclusion. Amtrak’s co-chief executive, Richard Anderson, told reporters earlier on Monday he would not speculate on the cause of the crash, and that safety was the firm’s top priority. But he acknowledged that positive train control (PTC), a system that automatically slows trains if they are going too fast, had not been installed on that stretch of track. Just last month, the NTSB chairman issued a scathing critique of Amtrak’s culture, saying a future breakdown was likely, and the board made nine safety recommendations. “Amtrak’s safety culture is failing and is primed to fail again, until and unless Amtrak changes the way it practices safety management,” Robert Sumwalt said on Nov. 14. Sumwalt’s statement was made in conjunction with the NTSB’s findings into a fatal Amtrak accident in April 2016 in Pennsylvania, which it said was caused by “deficient safety management across many levels of Amtrak and the resultant lack of a clear, consistent and accepted vision for safety.” In that crash an Amtrak train struck a backhoe tractor on railroad tracks in Chester, Pennsylvania, killing two maintenance workers and injuring 41. It occurred a few miles south of the site of a May 2015 derailment in which eight people were killed and more than 200 injured. Sumwalt told a hearing the board’s investigation “revealed more than two dozen unsafe conditions and not all of these were rule-breaking by frontline employees.” Amtrak named former Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Officer Anderson as co-CEO last summer. Anderson also told reporters on Monday that Amtrak took NTSB recommendations from investigations “very seriously” and was continuing to make investments that the board recommended. Amtrak said in a memo to employees in November seen by Reuters that it had been “transforming our safety culture” since the Pennsylvania incident and had made numerous reforms, including to communication, training, safety efforts and creating a team that conducts safety audits. It also expanded drug and alcohol testing. SLOW ROLLOUT OF SAFETY SYSTEM On Monday, a U.S. congressman from Washington state called attention to the slow rollout of PTC. “We don’t know that it could have saved lives ... but it is a disappointment to me that we’re not further along in the implementation of installing PTC,” Representative Denny Heck, a Democrat, told CNN. Congress had mandated the implementation of PTC nationwide by the end of 2015, then extended that deadline until the end of 2018 when its installation became more complex than anticipated. “There is a money issue because while Congress mandated the implementation of PTC on the railroads they didn’t give any money for it, so it is self-funded,” said Allan Zarembski, director of the Railroad Engineering and Safety Program at the University of Delaware. Zarembski cautioned against assigning blame for Monday’s accident, noting that Amtrak does not own the track where the accident occurred. Related Video It is owned by the Seattle-area Sound Transit agency. “The railways generally are very safe,” he said. “I‘m very reluctant to point the finger and say the railroads are a major problem here.” A spokesman for Sound Transit, Geoff Patrick, said the track had recently been upgraded to handle passenger trains from its prior use for slow-moving freight trains. He said Sound Transit was part of the incident response and was working with the NTSB in its investigation. Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Daniel Trotta in New York; Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California and Keith Coffman in Denver, Colorado; Editing by Leslie Adler and John Stonestreet