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Six dead in Washington Amtrak derailment
Six dead in Amtrak train derailment over Washington state highway
CNN, Dec 18 2017 5:46 PM ET
An Amtrak passenger train on its first trip on a new service route derailed Monday morning near DuPont, Washington, spilling 13 cars off an Interstate 5 overpass and killing six people, according to the spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Office and the Washington State Patrol. Seventy-seven people were transported to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties. Four of them suffered serious injuries.
The crash happened at 7:40 AM local time, about 20 miles south of Tacoma. The train was running southbound from Seattle when 13 rail cars derailed in a curve near an interstate overpass, sending them onto the highway below and shutting down traffic. Several motorists in vehicles that were struck by the fallen train cars suffered injuries but there were no fatalities among people in those vehicles. Today was the first day of Amtrak 501's Cascades service between Seattle and Portland.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/18/us/amt...ton/index.html
"And now, here is Me with a commentary." Thank you, Me. Don Anderson, Mayor of nearby Lakewood, spoke to Department Of Transportation officials at a December 5 meeting, warning that the high-speed trains will eventually cause fatalities because the trains are too close to cars and pedestrians. He urged improvements to the grade separations. He told the DOT officials, "Come back when there is that accident and try to justify not putting in those safety enhancements, or you can go back now and advocate for the money to do it, because this project was never needed and endangers our citizens."
Maybe they should have listened.
