DUPONT, Wash. (AP) - The Latest on the deadly Amtrak train derailment in Washington state (all times local):
5:20 p.m.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says that Amtrak President Richard Anderson told him the rail company will pay the costs associated with a deadly train derailment as well as the medical and other expenses of the victims.
He also said Anderson would try to ensure a technology can automatically slow or stop a speeding train - known as positive train control - will be in place statewide before a Dec. 31, 2018 federal deadline.
That technology was not in use on the stretch of track involved in Monday’s crash. Regulators have been pressing railroads for years to install such technology, and some have done so, but the deadline has been extended repeatedly at the industry’s request.
The train derailment Monday killed three people and spilled cars onto a busy interstate freeway south of Seattle.
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5:00 p.m.
A portion of a busy freeway in Washington state that was closed following a deadly Amtrak derailment has reopened.
The Washington State Department of Transportation says two of the three southbound lanes of Interstate 5 at the crash site south of Tacoma, Washington, reopened early Wednesday evening.
The train derailment Monday that killed three people had spilled cars onto the highway and closed the southbound lanes of Washington’s main north-south arterial during the busy holiday travel period.
Federal investigators trying to determine the cause of the wreck want to know why the train was travelling more than double the posted speed limit when it went off the tracks.
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12:30 p.m.
Authorities have identified the third man killed in the deadly Amtrak derailment in Washington state and say he was under federal supervision for a child pornography conviction.
The Pierce County coroner’s office said Wednesday that 40-year-old Benjamin Gran, of Auburn, Washington, died of multiple traumatic injuries in the train accident.
Federal officials say they were notified of Gran’s death. Officials say Gran had been ordered to a lifetime of supervised release following a felony conviction for child pornography. He served two years in prison and was released in 2015.
The coroner’s office also ruled the deaths of two other victims as accidents. Sixty-one-year-old Jim Hamre and 35-year-old Zack Willhoite died of severe brain and skull injuries from blunt impact on the train.
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10:00 a.m.
Crews are working to finish clearing the wreckage from a deadly Amtrak derailment that closed a portion of a busy freeway in Washington state.
On Wednesday morning a locomotive from the train was being removed from the scene of Monday’s accident that spilled train cars onto Interstate 5, killing three and injuring dozens.
The wreck closed the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 south of Tacoma, during the busy holiday travel period. The Washington State Department of Transportation says it will reopen the freeway lanes as soon as possible.
Federal investigators trying to determine the cause of the wreck want to know why the train was travelling more than double the posted speed limit when it went off the tracks.
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12:18 a.m.
Federal investigators probing a deadly Amtrak derailment are trying to determine why the train was traveling at more than double the posted speed limit as it entered the curve where it left the tracks and plunged off an overpass and partly onto a freeway, killing three people and injuring dozens.
National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Tuesday that early details from the probe indicate a conductor-in-training was in the cab with the engineer at the time of the derailment and the brake that eventually stopped the train was automatically activated instead of being applied by the engineer.
Technology that can automatically slow a speeding train was not in use on that stretch of track. Track sensors and other components were installed, but the system isn’t expected to be completed until spring.
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