UPDATE – SIX THREE FATALITIES CONFIRMED
An Amtrak passenger train derailed on Monday during its inaugural run along a faster route through Washington state, sending part of the train crashing down onto a major highway and killing an unknown number of passengers, authorities said.
The derailment caused “multiple fatalities,” Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the local sheriff’s office, told reporters at the scene, though he did not offer a specific number. The train struck several cars on the highway, he added, causing injuries but no additional deaths.
Seventy-seven people were transported to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties, the Tacoma-based CHI Franciscan Health healthcare network said in a statement. Four of them were considered “level red” patients with the most severe injuries.
Approximately 78 passengers and five crew members were aboard the train, Amtrak said in a statement.
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Stella's Place 
This is so scary. You can’t trust the gov any more at all.
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Horrible and terrifying. You likely know that the I-5 is one of the major West Coast Interstates. I’m amazed that there weren’t dozens of cars hit.
Interesting that this was an inaugural run. Totally speculative, of course, but suspicions should rest on how much publicity this got and what potential terror groups are working in the area who would take advantage of the information.
It’s been years since I rode on a train. Do they require seat belts at all times? Seems to me that they don’t.
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They don’t have seat belts, much less require them. I believe five or six cars were hit, but nobody in the cars was killed.
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Traveling faster than the posted speed limit…….
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Not much, though. Only a couple of miles per hour, I heard – 81 or 82 mph?
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By 50 miles. 80 in a 30 speed zone.🙄.
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This is a good example of bad reporting, which isn’t unusual just after a disaster. Original reporting was that it was a 79 mph speed zone.
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Ah sorry, I just read it this morning and I’m catching up. I would not have guessed there was a 79 mile speed zone over a busy highway. Thanks for the update Stella.
I’ll look for the article but a few days ago there was a write up about this and the millions of dollars spent on the new trains but they were flawed and should be used for scrap. I think it was in the NYP.
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The reporting originally was that this was the first time the passenger train used this track, which was formerly for freight only, and that the track had been upgraded for high speed. I took the Portland to Seattle train when I was there five years ago; the derailed cars look the same.
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Mrs Nyet came to where I am with the oldest until after New Years. I don’t think she’s heard about this yet. Also, it’s about 30-40 miles South of Seattle so she probably still wouldn’t have heard about if she were home.
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You mean you haven’t told her yet? 😯
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I’m working, so I don’t see them but for a few minutes in the evening. I asked her if she head about it and she said they saw it on a television in the hotel breakfast area.
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I got busted doing triple the speed limit once.
In a Hobie Cat.
Doing 15 in a 5.
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