clear. train 501 was traveling about 80 miles per hour as it rounded a curve and derailed. that s more than twice the posted 30-mile-per-hour speed limit. the brake was automatically activated rather than being initiated by the engineer. and that simply means that that s part of when there is an accident, the emergency brake system goes in place. it was not something that the engineer actually initiated himself. three people onboard the train were killed, including zach, his friend described him as a mass transit history enthusiast. many passengers wanted to be onboard for the train s inaugural run from seattle, through dupont, to portland. bob snyder was in car five. he remembers the moment it approached the overpass. 15 minutes or so, and then i noticed some what would feel like normal turbulence on an airplane, but for a train ride, it s unusual.
some of those train cars landed on the busy freeway below. you can see, there is to a lot of activity here unseen, and while it will take many months to determine an official cause, no question, does amtrak train was going too fast on its inaugural run between in seattle and portland. train 501 was going 80 miles an hour and a-mile-per-hour zone. 50 over the speed limit when it careened off the overpass. now we are hearing about those first anguished moments from the conductor himself as he radioed for help. amtrak 51, emergency, emergency. we are on the ground. we are on the bridge over i5. on the freeway. we need ems, a separate date are already starting to show up. speak out that conductor and for other
jumped the tracks, plummeting on to the highway and vehicles below. we ll be we hope interviewing the crew to find out if they have more information that can help us figure this out. reporter: besides looking at whether a mechanical malfunction played a role, investigators are now focused on the crew controlling the train and whether human error caused the deadly derailment. it was like being inside an exploding bomb. there was this body lying there, i mean, it was he had hardly had any clothes on. the cloekts had just been ripped off him and he was obviously dead. reporter: while investigators have not determined the cause, amtrak s ceo says positive train control was not activated when the derailment happened. ptc is a technology which automatically slows down and eventually stops a train if it senses it s going too fast. sound transit, the company that owns the tracks, says the technology will be fully implemented by next spring. one of ntsb s board members
people. as a crane carefully moved peas of the wreckage today, we learned the event data recorder clocked the train going at 80 miles per hour yesterday in a 30 miles per hour zone. we re also getting the identity of one of the three victims killed, zach was an i.t. specialist for a local company. rene marsh just got new information along testing along the train s route. that s right. the company that opens the tracks spoke to us. their name is sound transit. the rail signals as well as the tracks, they were all new. they were replaced within the last two years. the company also says they tested an amtrak train without passengers on board at all speed limits along the route. but tonight the question remains, what caused this deadly derailment? reporter: amtrak train 501 was traveling at 80 miles per hour, nearly three times the 30-mile-per-hour speed limit as it approached the curve where all but one of the train s cars
reporter: what was supposed to be a celebration, the first run of newer, faster train service, tonight is a tragedy of twisted metal, with multiple passengers dead. oh, my god. that train is derailed. train derailment over the freeway. multiple patients. reporter: amtrak train 501 left seattle just after 6:00 a.m., heading toward portland. 86 passengers and crew on board. at 7:30, passenger chris karnes tweeting, wow, this train is fast. we are passing up traffic on i-5. minutes later, at 7:33 a.m., a lock motive and 12 cars careen off both sides of the overpass, down onto interstate 5, crushing vehicles below. amtrak 501. emergency. emergency. emergency. we are on the ground. reporter: the conductor radioing for help. hey guys, what happened? we were coming around the corner to take the bridge over i-5 there right north of nisqually and we went on the ground. is everybody okay? i m still figuring that out. we got cars everywhere and down onto the highway. as soon