OfficerBluePierce County, WA – Seventy-four people were injured, and ~~six~~ three people have been killed, after an Amtrak train derailed on a bridge over Interstate 5 on Monday morning.
UPDATE: Associated Press walked back on their claim that 6 people were killed and is now reporting three killed.
Amtrak 501 was on its first run on a new high-speed train line when it left Seattle at 6 a.m. The train derailed over I-5 near Mounts Road at around 7:30 a.m., according to Tacoma News Tribune.
The train was traveling at about 80 MPH at the time it derailed, with traffic below traveling at around 70 MPH.
The train cars crashed from the overpass onto traffic below. None of the vehicle occupants were killed.
“We had just passed the city of DuPont and it seemed like we were going around a curve,” Pierce Transit advisory board chairman Chris Karnes told CBS News. “All of a sudden, we felt this rocking and creaking noise, and it felt like we were heading down a hill. The next thing we know, we’re being slammed into the front of our seats, windows are breaking, we stop, and there’s water gushing out of the train. People were screaming.”
Traffic in the area was expected to be impacted for days as the train was blocking the state’s most-traveled interstate.
Gov. Jay Inslee released a statement, saying, “Thank you to the first responders on the scene. We’re praying for everyone on board the train, and ask everyone to hold them in your thoughts.”
President Trump responded to the tragedy on Twitter:
St. Peter’s hospital in Olympia was requesting blood donations ASAP to save injured train passengers, according to the City of Lacey.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
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