Amtrak train derails outside of Washington; 97 injured

The old came tumbling down as one of the last remaining structures occupying the site of the new federal courthouse on Independence was razed during ceremonies held Monday.By Stephen Manning ~ The Associated Press

KENSINGTON, Md. -- A double-decker Amtrak train derailed in the summer heat outside Washington on Monday, injuring more than 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.

Six of the train's 13-cars lay on their 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.

NTSB vice chairwoman Carol Carmody said during a news conference Monday night that 97 people had been hurt and six of them were in critical condition.

Recorders recovered

Carmody said two recorders -- similar to a plane's black boxes -- had been recovered. She said they would provide information such as the speed of the train and what the engineer was doing, such as braking or throttling.

A stretch of damaged track ran about 150 yards along the accident site, ties ripped from the gravel bed and the rails twisted. 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 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. "When the track gets up over 100 degrees, you have things called heat kinks. You have to watch your track very carefully."