By Mike Lindblom, Staff Reporter, Seattle Times; May 21, 2019
Washington state’s lightweight Talgo trains that carried 800,000 Amtrak Cascades passengers last year should be replaced with stronger railcars able to withstand a crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) proposed Tuesday, in its final hearing about the fatal high-speed derailment in December 2017 on a curve near DuPont.
All three passengers who died would likely have survived in a stronger vehicle, said NTSB investigator Michael Hiller. The aluminum, Spanish-designed cars uncoupled and the wheels broke loose. Like missiles, they hit vehicles and other railcars that plunged onto Interstate 5.