Page 12 - The Engineer News Today

Was the train traveling at an unusual speed, was it a turn? what can you describe if you were conscious of that at the moment of impact? >> im on the train very often. we were on the straight away and it felt like we were going at normal speed. being a regular rail passenger it did not appear that we were going at any extraordinary speed at all. >> were seeing live pictures. the engineers ability to stop quickly, my recollection thats when we got jolted.

>> that woman was so distraught that when the dispatcher asked her her age, she said "i dont know how i am, im sorry." nobody on the freeway was seriously hurt. the day after the accident, authorities released the call made by the engineer operating train. he described cars everywhere and multiple injuries. according to federal investigators, the engineer was not on his cell phone at the time of the accident but he was training a conductor on the new route and he may have been distracted. that i...

Crew members were not using cell phones or other electronic devices. but only mention the excessive speed about six seconds before the train went off the tracks. the emergency break was automatically activated. instead of being initiated by the engineer, raising questions about whether he may have been distracted by a second person. meanwhile, local crews have been hard at work, clearing away their wreckage, getting the busy i-5 highway fully back open in time for the holiday rush. >> this is be...

Investigators also looking into whether the engineer was distracted by an employee in training when the train plunged off an overpass killing three people. among the dead jim henry and jack. both men were railroad advocates. the actress both known as the voice of daphne on scooby-doo has died. >> where are you? jillian: heather north voiced the character on the cartoon series for over 30 years. north also made her way in front of the camera on the daytime soap opera days of our lives in the 1970...

The 30-mile-per-hour limit. >> the emergency brake was automatically activated after -- when the accident was occurring, rather than being initiated by the engineer. >> reporter: the train was making its first passenger run between seattle and portland on newly upgraded track, filled with rail lovers like zach willhoite and jim hamre, two of the three people who died. >> it was like being inside an exploding bomb. >> reporter: beverly and charlie heebner were excited for that maiden run, too. >>...

Clear. train 501 was traveling about 80 miles per hour as it rounded a curve and derailed. thats more than twice the posted 30-mile-per-hour speed limit. >> the brake was automatically activated rather than being initiated by the engineer. and that simply means that thats part of when there is an accident, the emergency brake system goes in place. it was not something that the engineer actually initiated himself. >> three people onboard the train were killed, including zach, his friend described...

Focused on is excessive speed, failure to slow down, two people in the cab instead of one and the possibility that either that second person or some piece of electronics distracted the engineer, he failed to hit the brakes. back to you. >> all right. this is a story we certainly need answers to. thanks so much, tom. were going to take a break. coming up, money, power, politics. jared kushners family business boasting billions of dollars in real estate acquisitions over the last decade but just...

>> preliminary indications are that the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour and a 30-mile-per-hour track. >> the event data recorder is starting to provide the first clues as to what possibly caused amtrak train 500 want to go off the tracks. as the cars are removed, investigators are looking into factors, including why the train was going more than double the speed limit for the area. >> they are looking in operations, the track, the mechanics. survival factors, human performance. >> the t...

Me. >> telling you what? >> telling me why this all happened. >> reporter: but then, he shut down. even so, detectives thought they had enough evidence linking him to the crime. they arrested him and charged him with murder. then, an amazing turn of events. after his steadfast denials, the engineer admitted that, yes, he was the shooter. but he said he was not guilty of the crime because he had been insane when he pulled the trigger. a little more than a year after his arrest, hemy neumans trial...

>> youre this close to telling me. >> telling you what? >> telling me why this all happened. >> reporter: but then he shut down. even so, detectives thought they had enough evidence linking him to the crime. they arrested him and charged him with murder. then, an amazing turn of events. after his steadfast denials, the engineer admitted that, yes, he was the shooter. but he said he was not guilty of the crime because he had been insane when he pulled the trigger. a little more than a year after ...