Southbound I-5 reopens after Amtrak derailment
Updated 12/20/2017 10:20 p.m.: WSDOT has opened all southbound lanes at Mounts Road near DuPont, including the on-ramp.
The freeway has been closed in this area since Monday morning, when an Amtrak passenger train derailed near the Mounts Road overpass, spilling cars onto the Interstate below. Officials have confirmed three people died in the crash, all of whom were on the train. About 100 more were injured.
Crews worked through Tuesday night and were able to clear all the train cars from the wreckage, according to an update from WSDOT Wednesday morning.
The train, including the 270,000-pound locomotive, was taken to a secure site at nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord for the National Transportation Safety Board to continue its investigation into the crash.
So far the key information that has come from the agency is that the train was moving 80 mph in a 30-mph area shortly before derailing and that emergency brake was automatically — not humanely — activated during the accident.
NTSB said they have recovered both event data recorders from the rear and front locomotives and the inward and outward facing cameras from the front, though these did sustain damage in the wreck. The cameras were sent to a Washington, D.C. lab for analysis.
