115 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

The News-Tribune, Tacoma, WA 9/5/19
 

Together, South Sound leaders blow whistle for train safety. Will it be heard?

 

By The News Tribune Editorial Board

 

 

Refusing to put an inexcusable fatal train wreck in the rearview mirror, the Pierce County Council last week wisely joined other local governments in adopting a resolution opposing restoration of the Point Defiance bypass until more than two dozen safety measures are enacted.

 

SNIP

 

The list goes way beyond Positive Train Control, the GPS-controlled automatic braking system that has since been installed along the entire Cascades route from Blaine, Washington, to Eugene, Oregon. Recommendations include replacing the structurally vulnerable passenger railcars, fixing emergency radio frequencies and implementing a whole new safety management system on all of Amtrak’s operations.

 

SNIP

 

Eliminating the longtime railway bottleneck along Puget Sound is still a good idea. And the $181 million that’s been poured into this 18 miles of track should not become another monument to government waste, aka a “bypass to nowhere.”

 

But safety is paramount.

 

Matkin said progress has been swift. Amtrak plans to add two commuter round trips per day between Seattle and Portland as soon as the bypass is operational.

 

Indeed, all parties are motivated. They have trains to catch.

 

More here.

[CNJRoss]

KUOW-FM Seattle, WA 9/7/19
 

Amtrak concedes negligence in catastrophic 2017 derailment south of Tacoma

 

 

The first of what could be many trials stemming from the deadly 2017 derailment of a Portland-bound Amtrak Cascades train began with the railway accepting liability for the crash.

 

SNIP

 

Amtrak's Landman asserted the only question the jury would need to wrestle with is "what is fair and reasonable compensation."

 

Continue here.

[KevinKorell]

News-Tribune, Tacoma, WA, 9/13/19:

 

 

 

Jury awards $17M to 3 plaintiffs in deadly Amtrak derailment

 

 

A federal jury has awarded three people who sued over a deadly Amtrak derailment in Washington state nearly $17 million for their pain and suffering.

 

 

Read

[CNJRoss]

Railway Age 11/19/19
 

NTSB Amtrak 501 Report: “Errors and Unsupported Statements”

 

 

Talgo, Inc., on Oct. 29, 2019 filed a Petition for Reconsideration with the National Transportation Safety Board regarding the Board’s report, Investigation No. RRD18MR001, Accident Report NTSB/RAR-19/01, on the Dec. 18, 2017 overspeed derailment of Amtrak Train 501 at DuPont, Wash.

 

Talgo’s petition, which is in the public record, can be downloaded here:

20191028-Talgo-Inc.s-Petition-for-Reconsideration-of-NTSB-Investigatio.._Download

 

“That report contains many errors and unsupported statements, but the most striking is Recommendation NTSB R-19-018 to Washington State Department of Transportation to ‘[d]iscontinue the use of the Talgo Series VI trainsets as soon as possible and replace them with passenger equipment that meet [sic] all current United States safety requirements’ (page 126),” Talgo, Inc. Director of Product Development and Compliance Joshua D. Coran told Railway Age.*

 

“This statement is remarkable for two reasons: It is unprecedented, and nonsense,” Coran says. “I have researched every available NTSB report of passenger train derailments and collisions dating back to 1971. I have found 33. None recommends the removal of an entire fleet of cars. In at least one case, one might have expected such a recommendation:

 

“I had been an employee of the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad for about four weeks when, on Oct. 30, 1972, two suburban EMU trains collided at 27^th Street in Chicago. The lead car of the older conventional consist telescoped the new gallery-type Highliner at the rear of the train ahead. Forty-five were killed and 322 injured, many very seriously. On April 25 of the following year the NTSB issued a recommendation ⁽¹⁾ to the FRA relevant to this collision. It identified as a contributing factor the non-compliance of the attachment of the Highliner collision posts to the underframe. The NTSB said, ‘The Board believes, however, that this condition can be corrected.’ (pg. 1) and went on to say (pg. 3) ‘The problem of the inadequately attached collision posts does not imply that the cars are unsafe to be operated …’

 

“There was no recommendation to remove the cars from service, not even until they could be brought into compliance.

 

Continue here.

[EvergreenRailfan]

Nice to see TALGO respond. Especially with our local media asking a month after the NTSB report why the trainsets were still in use. My trip yesterday, TALGO 8s both ways, first time that has happened.

[CNJRoss]

The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA 12/4/19
 

Sound Transit safety executive fired in wake of fatal 2017 Amtrak derailment near DuPont

 

 

A Sound Transit official lost his job Wednesday following a new report on the 2017 Amtrak train crash that killed three people near DuPont. The report concluded Sound Transit failed to follow its safety plans and did not understand its role in preventing the derailment that also injured scores of people.

 

Sound Transit commissioned the report after the May release of the National Transportation Safety Board’s findings on the Dec. 18, 2017 derailment that shut down Interstate 5 for two days. 

 

“That review is now complete, and the findings are sobering,” Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff said Wednesday.  

 

SNIP 

 

Findings from the report included:

 

▪ Sound Transit staff wrongly believed that the state Department of Transportation, not Sound Transit, was responsible for overseeing Amtrak training and qualifications.  .  .  .

Read more here: https://www.thenewst...l#storylink=cpy

 

More here.

 

Read more here: https://www.thenewst...l#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.thenewst...l#storylink=cpy

[KevinKorell]

Tacoma, WA News-Tribune, 1/22/20:

 

 

 

Engineer at controls during deadly train derailment near DuPont sues Amtrak  

 

 

 

The engineer of the train that derailed near DuPont in 2017 filed a lawsuit against Amtrak this week.

 

Read

[CNJRoss]

The News-Tribune, Tacoma, WA 2/12/20
 

$10 million verdict for man injured in Amtrak derailment on way to see new grandchild

 

 

A jury has awarded more than $10 million to a man who was seriously injured when an Amtrak train derailed near DuPont in 2017.

 

Donnell Linton, 47 of Renton, is one of many passengers of Amtrak Cascades 501 who sued Amtrak after the train left the tracks and some of its cars crashed onto the freeway below. Three died and dozens were injured.

 

Jurors issued the verdict in Linton’s favor Tuesday in in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.

 

An Amtrak spokesperson declined to comment about the decision.

 

 

Continue here.
 

[CNJRoss]

KOMO News, Seattle, WA 2/26/20
 

Passenger who nearly died in 2017 Amtrak derailment files lawsuit

 

 

RENTON, Wash. – It’s been more than two years since Tim Brodigan nearly died after an Amtrak train derailed. Now he’s suing Amtrak, Sound Transit, and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for an amount to be determined at the time of trial.

 

Brodigan was on board Amtrak 501 headed to see cousins in Oregon when it derailed on December 18, 2017. In the minutes after the derailment, a good Samaritan came across Brodigan, who was hanging upside down near a window of the train. But he was so bloody and bruised that the man initially thought the then 16-year-old was dead.

 

Continue here.

[KevinKorell]

Tacoma, WA News-Tribune, 12/26/20:

 

    Deadly Amtrak derailment near DuPont caused environmental damage, landowner alleges 

 

 

A fatal Amtrak derailment near DuPont in 2017 polluted a nearby property that has wetlands and other habitat, a landowner’s lawsuit alleges.

 

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