Safety officials seek answers in deadly Amtrak derailment

By AMY BETH HANSON, MARTHA BELLISLE and ANITA SNOW

JOPLIN, Mont. (AP) — Federal investigators examined overturned obstruction cars and a agelong of tracks Monday arsenic they worked to fig retired wherefore an Amtrak bid derailed successful agrarian Montana implicit the weekend, sidesplitting 3 people.

The westbound Empire Builder was traveling from Chicago to Seattle erstwhile it near the tracks Saturday day adjacent Joplin, a municipality of astir 200. The train, carrying 141 passengers and 16 unit members, had 2 locomotives and 10 cars, 8 of which derailed, with immoderate tipping onto their sides. Seven radical were hospitalized.

The derailment occurred adjacent a power successful the line, wherever 1 acceptable of tracks turned into two, connected a agelong of way that had conscionable been inspected 2 days earlier, said Matt Jones, a BNSF Railway spokesperson said Sunday astatine a quality conference.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to supply an update aboriginal Monday. Identities of the victims had not been released.

Investigators volition look astatine “everything” including the switch, wheels, axles and suspension systems, arsenic good arsenic the way geometry and condition, including immoderate cracks, said Steven Ditmeyer, a obstruction advisor and erstwhile elder authoritative astatine the Federal Railroad Administration. He said a power similar the 1 successful Joplin would beryllium controlled by the BNSF power halfway successful Fort Worth, Texas.

Sometimes obstruction lines tin go deformed by heat, creating a buckle successful the tracks known arsenic prima kinks, Ditmeyer said. That was the origin of different derailment successful bluish Montana successful August 1988, erstwhile an Empire Builder bid derailed astir 170 miles (274 kilometers) eastbound successful Saco, Montana.

The NTSB concluded that an inspection failed to drawback a occupation successful the track, and officials did not pass trains to dilatory down connected that stretch. The unit saw the way had shifted, but the bid was going afloat velocity and could not halt earlier derailing.

Temperatures were successful the precocious 80s Saturday adjacent Joplin, according to the National Weather Service.

Russ Quimby, a erstwhile rail-accident researcher for the NTSB, said the astir apt mentation is that the bid deed a conception of way that buckled owed to heat, akin to the 1988 accident. He is convinced due to the fact that the locomotives successful beforehand did not derail, but 8 lighter manager cars down them did.

“This has each the earmarks of a way buckle also,” Quimby said. “Sometimes a locomotive, which is heavier, volition marque it through” a buckled track, “but the cars pursuing won’t. You saw that successful this accident,” helium said.

Quimby said a malfunction of the power seems little apt because, helium believes, the power would person been inspected erstwhile the way successful the country was checked past week.

Another anticipation was a defect successful the rail, said railroad information adept David Clarke, manager of the Center for Transportation Research astatine the University of Tennessee. He noted that regular investigating does not ever drawback specified problems.

Speed was not a apt origin due to the fact that trains connected that enactment person systems that forestall excessive speeds and collisions, which look to person worked successful this case, Clarke said.

The velocity bounds connected that agelong of way is 79 mph, said John Haitt, a erstwhile BNSF technologist who who is with the Bremseth instrumentality steadfast based successful Minneapolis that provides practice for railroad mishap injuries. Haitt, who is connected the country successful Montana, said failroad employees helium spoke with said determination was a brushed spot, a debased spot connected the way successful that area.

Two locomotives and 2 cars astatine the beforehand of the bid reached the power and continued connected the main track, but the remaining 8 cars derailed. He said it was unclear whether immoderate of the past cars moved onto the 2nd track.

“Did the power play immoderate role? It mightiness person been that the beforehand of the bid deed the power and it started fish-tailing and that flipped the backmost portion of the train,” Clarke said.

The tract of the derailment is astir 150 miles (241 kilometers) northeast of Helena, Montana, and astir 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the Canadian border. The tracks chopped done vast, aureate brownish wheat fields that were precocious harvested and astir parallel to U.S. Highway 2.

A 14-member National Transportation Safety Board squad including railroad awesome specialists volition look into the origin of the accident, NTSB spokesperson Eric Weiss said.

Allan Zarembski, manager of the University of Delaware’s Railway Engineering and Safety Program, said helium did not privation to speculate but suspected the derailment stemmed from an contented with the track, bid instrumentality oregon both.

Railways person “virtually eliminated” large derailments by quality mistake aft the implementation of a nationwide strategy designed to halt trains earlier an accident, Zarembski said.

The derailment comes arsenic Congress works toward last transition of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bundle that includes $66 cardinal to amended Amtrak service. That’s little than the $80 cardinal that President Joe Biden — who famously rode Amtrak from Delaware to Washington during his clip successful the Senate — primitively asked for, but it would beryllium the largest national concern successful rider obstruction work since Amtrak was founded 50 years ago.

The biggest chunk of wealth would spell toward repairs and improvements on the obstruction service’s congested 457-mile-long Northeast Corridor arsenic good arsenic intercity routes with higher commuter traffic. About $16 cardinal besides is aimed astatine gathering retired Amtrak’s nationalist work to wider America, peculiarly successful agrarian regions.

Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn said the institution was moving with the NTSB, Federal Railroad Administration and section instrumentality enforcement, sharing their “sense of urgency” to find what happened successful Montana.

Most of those connected the bid were treated and released for their injuries, but 5 who were much earnestly wounded were successful unchangeable information astatine the Benefis Health System infirmary successful Great Falls, Montana, Benefis spokesperson Whitney Bania said.

Two much radical were astatine Logan Health, a infirmary successful Kalispell, Montana, spokeswoman Melody Sharpton said.

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Associated Press writers Hope Yen successful Washington and David Koenig successful Dallas contributed to this report.