Amtrak derailment: Train was travelling 80mph in 30mph zone before crash that killed three people

But 'too early to tell' why train was travelling so fast, transport board member says

(Getty)

The Amtrak train which derailed south of Seattle, killing three people and injuring dozens more, was travelling at 80mph in a 30mph zone, investigations have revealed.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said information from the event data recorder in the rear locomotive provided information about the train’s speed at the time of the derailment in Washington state.

Authorities said at least three people were killed and dozens injured when the train derailed early on Monday morning, spilling train carriages onto the busy Interstate 5 road.

NTSB board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said it was not yet known what caused the train to derail and that “it’s too early to tell” why it was going so fast.

Federal investigators are continuing their inquiries at the scene.

The train was on its first journey along a newly-opened section of track.

It derailed on an overpass and plunged onto a major highway shortly after 7.30am on Monday.

More than 70 people were taken to hospital.

Amtrak President Richard Anderson said track technology called positive train control, designed to prevent high-speed derailments among other potential hazards, was not online at the time.

Washington state governor Jay Inslee called the crash a “public disaster”, and said there had been “significant structural damage to the overpass, railway and highway infrastructure”.

A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation showed the maximum speed drops from 79mph to 30 mph for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, where the train went off the tracks.

The chart, dated 7 February, was submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration in anticipation of the start of passenger service along a new bypass route that shaves off 10 minutes for the trip between Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

Kimberly Reason from Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, said speed signs are posted 2 miles before the speed zone changes and just before the speed zone approaching the curve.

Additional reporting by agencies