News Wire: One year after 'Cascade' derailment, route awaits return to service, investigation continues

[Brian_Schmidt]

DUPONT, Wash. — A year after three people were killed when an Amtrak Cascades train derailed on its first run over a recently constructed bypass, passenger service has still not returned to the new route. On Dec. 17, 2017, southbound train No…

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/12/18-one-year-after-cascade-derailment-route-awaits-return-to-service-investigation-continues

[BaltACD]

So all this time the NTSB has been expending its efforts on activities and decisions that are peripheral to the incident itself.

Last week, officials with the NTSB said that their inquiry into the fatal derailment was about “two-thirds complete.” In an update posted online, officials said the investigation was focusing on three major areas. One group of investigators was focusing on the crashworthiness of the Talgo passenger cars in the train’s consist. Another group was focusing on the decision to start running passenger trains on the Point Defiance Bypass prior to the completion of PTC installation. A third group was examining the emergency response to the derailment.

[charlie_hebdo]

BaltACD wrote the following post 38 minutes ago: So all this time the NTSB has been expending its efforts on activities and decisions that are peripheral to the incident itself.

Perhaps this is because the immedite cause of the accident (human error, poor training) was obvious and investigated already, as seen in the preliminary report?

[Euclid]

That appears to be a concerted effort to dilute the true cause of the wreck in order to shield Amtrak from its liability. Certainly the three branches of the investigation are reaching beyond the true cause of the disaster. With that being so obvious, I expect the real surprise will be how little the report will delve into the central cause, which is engineer’s failure to slow down for the curve.

Regarding the group that is examining the emergency response: does this refer to the braking response of the engineer, or the arrival of first responders such as cops and rescue squads?