DuPont rail accident

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Representation of the accident site. The pulling locomotive is on the far left in the picture on the south lane of Interstate 5. The second locomotive at the end of the train (top right) is the only vehicle that has not derailed. A wagon (blue) is under the bridge. Arrow = direction of travel of the train. E-marks = embankments
New line (red), existing line (green) and accident site (arrow)

The railway accident DuPont was the derailing of an Amtrak -Zuges on December 18, 2017 at 07:33 local time (15:33 UTC ) in the US - Washington State , around 70 kilometers south of Seattle . Three people died.

Starting position

Geographical location

The accident site is about 5 kilometers southwest of DuPont , 30 kilometers southwest of Tacoma in Pierce County and about 70 kilometers south of Seattle. Here the railroad crosses Interstate 5 (I-5), which runs along the west coast of the USA between the Mexican and Canadian borders.

Infrastructure

The railway line is single-track and not electrified . Between Tacoma and DuPont, it was rebuilt from 2010 to 2017, the so-called Point Defiance Bypass . The right of way here lies with the Sound Transit company , which was built by the Washington State Department of Transportation . The Point Defiance Bypass was designed for a top speed of 79 mph (= 127 km / h). However, there is a local speed limit of 30 mph (48 km / h) at the scene of the accident . The line is equipped with the PTC train control system, which was not yet activated here. This route replaces a longer one of The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), which was previously used by the Cascade trains, runs winding along the Puget Sound , but has no automatic train protection. Federal grants were conditional on the line being completed in mid-2017 and the state promised to open it in the same year.

The newly built line runs in a very straight line through DuPont, after which it accompanies I-5 on its north (west) side at a distance of about 25 meters. To cross them, the railway line is 50 meters away from I-5, in order to take a sharp left turn to the bridge that leads over the motorway. This curve measures an arc of about 45 ° with a curve radius of 140 meters. The following, about 30 meter long steel bridge has longitudinally offset girders and spans the 3-lane south carriageway of I-5 at an acute angle of about 40 °.

The train

The Amtrak Cascades 501 train departed Seattle at 6 a.m. local time for Portland . There were five railway workers, a technician from the manufacturer Talgo and 77 passengers on the train. The train consisted of the leading diesel-electric locomotive from the Siemens Charger series , 12 Talgo passenger coaches and the General Electric P42 locomotive with road number 181, which ran along at the end of the train. Siemens chargers have a top speed of 200 km / h. The Amtrak Cascades was the first scheduled passenger train to run on the new line.

the accident

The train drove on the curve in front of the bridge at a very high speed. As the National Traffic Safety Authority subsequently determined, the train had entered the curve at 130 km / h. The train was therefore carried out of the curve, derailed completely - with the exception of the second locomotive running at the end of the train - and some of the railway vehicles ended up on the motorway, where they collided with five cars and two trucks.

consequences

Three people died in the railway accident - all of them occupants of an automobile hit by a train wheel - and more than 100 were injured, including a number of motorists. They were taken to nearby hospitals.

Railway traffic was only briefly interrupted and was then directed over the old route. The Washington State Department of Transportation announced that passenger traffic on the new line will only be resumed once the PTC train control system is fully functional on the entire route and the NTSB's final report is available. The resumption is planned for 2020.

All lanes of the I-5, which was initially closed, could be reopened to traffic by December 21 after clearance and repair work.

The damage to property was estimated at over $ 40 million.

The preliminary final report of the NTSB described the accident as "avoidable" and named the factors that led to it and its severity:

  • Too sudden a speed limit,
  • Opening of the line before the train protection system was operational,
  • lack of track experience of the staff, lack of training, incomplete manuals,
  • poor signaling of the route and
  • a condition of the train that did not meet the usual safety requirements and was only allowed to be operated on the basis of an exemption.

Worth knowing

On the Seattle – Portland route, another train derailed on December 18, 2017 in a section in which the PTC train protection system was already activated. Before this second train, a locomotive was used that was not yet equipped with a receiver for PTC.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Amtrak Washington train crash: Deaths as rail carriages fall on US motorway. In: BBC.com. December 19, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Sound Transit: Point Defiance Bypass ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.soundtransit.org
  3. ↑ Veronica Rocha, Brian Ries, Amanda Wills: Amtrak train derails in Washington: Live updates. In: CNN.com. December 18, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Craig Sailor: One of last great Washington train rides coming to an end ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: The News Tribune, December 9, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thenewstribune.com
  5. ↑ Mike Baker: Washington state: No passenger trains on Amtrak derailment route until safety systems are in place . In: Seattle Times, December 21, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  6. ↑ Mike Baker: Washington state: No passenger trains on Amtrak derailment route until safety systems are in place . In: Seattle Times, December 21, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  7. ↑ Lauren Meltzer: Amtrak train derailment: At least 3 killed in Washington state crash . In: CBS News of December 18, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  8. ^ NN: Amtrak Washington train crash: Deaths as carriages fall on US motorway . In: BBC News, December 19, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  9. ↑ Jon Ostrower, Joe Sterling and Ralph Ellis: At least 3 dead in Amtrak derailment in Washington state, official says . In: CNN of December 19, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  10. ↑ Washington train crash: Rail carriage falls on US motorway . In: BBC News Online, December 19, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  11. ↑ Ted Mann, Alejandro Lazo and Zusha Elinson: Three Are Killed as Amtrak Train Derails in Washington State . In: Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  12. ↑ Christiane Heil: Much too fast in the curve. In: FAZ. December 20, 2017, p. 8.
  13. ^ NN: Amtrak Washington train crash: Investigators focus on speed . In: BBC News, December 19, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  14. ↑ a b National Transportation Safety Board releases findings on deadly 2017 Amtrak crash. In: Curbed. May 21, 2019, accessed on March 29, 2020 .
  15. ^ A b Curtis Tate: National Transportation Safety Board says multiple state and federal agencies failed in 2017 Washington state crash. In: Trains.com. May 21, 2029, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Christiane Heil: Much too fast in the curve. In: FAZ. December 20, 2017, p. 8.
  17. ↑ Jon Ostrower, Joe Sterling and Ralph Ellis: At least 3 dead in Amtrak derailment in Washington state, official says . In: CNN of December 19, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  18. ↑ Mike Baker: Washington state: No passenger trains on Amtrak derailment route until safety systems are in place . In: Seattle Times, December 21, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  19. ^ Rail - Tacoma - Bypass of Point Defiance. Washington State Department of Transportation, January 2020, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  20. ↑ All lanes of I-5 at site of deadly Amtrak train derailment are open for morning commute. In: Seattle Times. December 21, 2017, accessed on March 29, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Preliminary Report Railroad Amtrak Passenger Train 501 Derailment DuPont, Washington December 18, 2017 RRD18MR001. National Transportation Safety Board , January 4, 2018, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Christiane Heil: Much too fast in the curve. In: FAZ. December 20, 2017, p. 8.

Coordinates: 47 ° 4 ′ 55.2 "  N , 122 ° 40 ′ 33"  W.