This is from my local news station's website.
See a familiar name in here as a spokesman?!?!
KENSINGTON, Md. -- A double-decker Amtrak train derailed in the summer heat outside Washington on Monday, injuring 90 people, about 30 of them seriously, authorities said.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators, and an expert said they would probably try to determine whether the heat had caused the track to buckle. Temperatures were in the mid-90s.
The train, the Capitol Limited en route from Chicago to the nation's capital with 173 passengers and crew members, jumped the tracks 10 miles from its destination at about 1:55 p.m., authorities said.
A row of double-decker Superliner cars lay on its side next to big trees that were smashed to pieces. Rescue workers lifted passengers out through the windows. Dazed-looking people wandered on the tracks as emergency workers tended to the injured. Several people were taken away on stretchers.
Six people were trapped in the cars, but all were freed within an hour, Montgomery County Fire Department spokesman Oscar Garcia said.
Ninety people were hurt, about 30 seriously, said Robert Allwang, operations chief for the Montgomery County fire and rescue services. The wreck involved two locomotives, eight occupied cars and four unoccupied cars, he said.
The track is owned, operated and maintained by freight railroad CSX Corp.
CSX spokesman Dan Murphy said the speed limit on that stretch is 70 mph and early indications are that the Amtrak train was going 57 to 60 mph
He said the section of track where the derailment happened was last inspected visually on Sunday. He said the last train that passed through before the wreck was a freight that went by about 45 minutes earlier and reported nothing unusual.
Former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz said investigators will probably look at whether heat warped the track.
"You always have to look at it during the summer," Goelz said. "This is a heavily used line by both freight and passengers. When the track gets up over 100 degrees, you have things called heat kinks. You have to watch your track very carefully."
Goelz said NTSB investigators will want to inspect the track and talk to the engineer to see if he noticed anything awry.
He said railroad inspectors regularly check tracks as much as twice a day during the summer to make sure there are no problems such as buckling.
Steve Colburn, who works at a nearby tire shop, said the accident "sounded like someone took a big trash truck and was trying to empty it."
Robert Bailey of Capitol Heights, Md., said he and his wife crawled through a window after the car they were riding in turned over. He described the scene as "pandemonium" with passengers "screaming and hollering." Bailey said they escaped with bumps and bruises.
At Washington's Union Station, relatives waited outside the gate where the train was supposed to arrive.
Katie Klingensmith, 17, of Silver Spring, was waiting with her mother for Katie's 15-year-old cousin, Andrea Mieses of Pittsburgh. She said her cousin called her cell phone to say she was off the train and all right, but she was muddy.
"First I thought it was a joke. But it's scary," Katie said. The car her cousin was in tipped but didn't fall over, she said.
In 1996, the Capitol Limited and a Maryland commuter train collided in nearby Silver Spring, killing all three crew members and eight passengers on commuter train.
The accident comes at a particularly difficult time for Amtrak, which is trying to emerge from its worst budget crisis in its 31-year history.
Amtrak has struggled to maintain full service this year because nearly 100 of its cars and locomotives are damaged and out of service. Low on cash, Amtrak has not been able to get the cars back on the tracks.
"The equipment supply was maxed out as it was," said Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Van Veen. It's possible some trains will have to run with fewer cars until repairs are made, she said. (AP)
