Train 501 News Today

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...

Some of those train cars landed on the busy freeway below. you can see, there is to a lot of activity here unseen, and while it will take many months to determine an official cause, no question, does amtrak train was going too fast on its inaugural run between in seattle and portland. train 501 was going 80 miles an hour and a-mile-per-hour zone. 50 over the speed limit when it careened off the overpass. now we are hearing about those first anguished moments from the conductor himself as he radi...

Jumped the tracks, plummeting on to the highway and vehicles below. >> well be we hope interviewing the crew to find out if they have more information that can help us figure this out. >> reporter: besides looking at whether a mechanical malfunction played a role, investigators are now focused on the crew controlling the train and whether human error caused the deadly derailment. >> it was like being inside an exploding bomb. >> there was this body lying there, i mean, it was -- he had -- hardly...

People. as a crane carefully moved peas of the wreckage today, we learned the event data recorder clocked the train going at 80 miles per hour yesterday in a 30 miles per hour zone. were also getting the identity of one of the three victims killed, zach was an i.t. specialist for a local company. rene marsh just got new information along testing along the trains route. >> thats right. the company that opens the tracks spoke to us. their name is sound transit. the rail signals as well as the trac...

>> reporter: what was supposed to be a celebration, the first run of newer, faster train service, tonight is a tragedy of twisted metal, with multiple passengers dead. >> oh, my god. that train is derailed. >> train derailment over the freeway. multiple patients. >> reporter: amtrak train 501 left seattle just after 6:00 a.m., heading toward portland. 86 passengers and crew on board. at 7:30, passenger chris karnes tweeting, "wow, this train is fast. we are passing up traffic on i-5." minutes la...

Preliminary indications are that the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour and a 30-mile-per-hour track. the train was a 12 car train, and he had a locomotive both in the front and the back. amtrak estimates that 80 passengers were on the train with three crew into service personnel in the cafe cart. >> jon: joining us now, railroad investigator. we are talking to you 24 hours ago when all we had some of the horrible pictures of those train cars still down on the i five from that overpass. wh...

Thank you a lot, john. >> typical day. >> jon: a fox news alert on the deadly amtrak derailment. investigators say the train was traveling more than twice the speed limit when it hit the curve and careened off an overpass, spilling cars on the interstate below. three people are dead. >> all of a sudden, it was crashing, and there it was down. the train went like this. this body lying there. hardly had any close on, it had been ripped off of him. he was obviously dead. >> melissa: wow. >> jon: li...

The ntsb hopes to have their interviews completed within the next day or so. of course, jake, theyre going for want to know everything from how much sleep did they get the night before to how familiar they were with these tracks. >> after the crash yesterday, president trumps first tweet touted the need for his infrastructure plan. he got some heat for that for not immediately recognizing obviously the victims. today were learning something else that the tweet may not have been factually on targ...

Themselves. >> jon: lets hear more from the national transportation safety board lead investigator on this case about what they train and engineer were doing. >> the question is, why was the train traveling at 80 miles per hour in a 30-mile-an-hour zone. the answer is, it is too early to tell. we were glad that we are able to get the data from the event data recorder from the rear locomotive. the front locomotive as you can imagine is a bit more difficult to access, and as you pursue that, well ...

Important part of the initial investigation by both ntsb and the federal rarld ilroad administrati administration. >> back with us, mary, i want to ask you in the same context. 78 passengers and five crew members on this train of what was the inaugural run of this service. seattle to portland. if thats routine, is it sufficient? five crew on that train? >> its probably sufficient depending on the services were for the passengers. given modern trains, less people than that can actually run the tr...