. no... still nope. now we're talking! it gets you wifi here, here, and here. it even lets you take a time out. no! no! yes! yes, indeed. amazing speed, coverage and control. all with an xfi gateway. find your awesome, and change the way you wifi. par are we begin the hour with sad breaking news in washington state. a passenger train derailed south of tacoma and we don't know the specifics just yet. photos taken on social media are

harrowing and show a train dangling over interstate 5. all southbound lanes have been blocked. stephanie is in our los angeles bureau. stephanie, a breaking news story. what do we know so far? >> it is devastating looking at the pictures of the train hanging off the side of the highway. what we know is that this train was heading southbound. the train is 501, part of the cascade service from seattle to portland. it's interstate 5 that runs the length of the country here on the west coast. this is a major thoroughfare and that is dangling there. there are people that are injured and casualties as well as what we are understanding. amtrak service south of seattle has been suspended as is interstate 5 is shut down on the southbound lanes as they are dealing with this. the governor of washington state, governor insley tweeted out -- i will read that to you. thank you to the first

responders on the scene. we are traying for everyone on board and ask everyone to hold them in your thoughts. that is just coming out from the governor as well. still possible lots of questions here. how this happened. some concern that is it may have been one of the new trains. that's what we are looking into. not a lot of information at this point, but we continue to follow it. >> you continue the reporting and please come back to us as we have new information. cnn transportation, she joins me via skype. obviously we are waiting and you have been in the position in the government when one of the things are happening. we have to be careful as we get information, but when you look at the pictures, i'm not sure if you can see it. when you see the train dangling over, you hear the little bit we know, what are your biggest questions or what can you conclude at the moment? >> the first thing that comes to everyone's mind and i'm sure the

investigators, this was the first day according to the schedule on their website. this was the first day of this new high speed service. this was a new train and new run. it's highlighted on the website that it could make the journey faster. and to have this happen on the maiden voyage will be of huge interest. they will be looking at whether the tracks were sufficient for i believe the train was going 81 miles an hour. that's pretty high speed, but not japan bullet train speed. fairly high speed. there was a vehicle on the track. you can't see that and that wouldn't seem to make sense since it was an overpass. i don't know how much further away the vehicle could have been. they will be looking at since amtrak does not own the track, was the track up for this high speed service? does it have, probably not, positive train control? there are so many questions to start. i'm sure they are digging in

already. i bet the team is already there. >> there are local officials and casualties. obviously when you look at the pictures, it raises your doubt that is something right there. the sheriff said multiple cars struck by the train. no motorist fatalities. you see the first responders on the team there. i was looking as we were about to come to air. the research on the bypass to have the trains go faster. what would be the testing and were they properliest itted? were they safety markers or the flashing to keep vehicles up on the tracks? what are the procedures? >> you make a very, very good point. so many think about the rails and are they in good alignment and able to handle the high speed trains? a very important point is whether there are whistles and signals and timing to give persons who are crossing the

track further up, obviously not an overpass, but further up if the warnings are in advance and what the whistle timing is. all of this is in the black box on the train. when the whistle was supposed to be sound and when it was sounded. did the gates close? all of that goes into hanging for high speed rail as well. i did have a chance to do work with japan rail. for the bullet trains, i go much faster. the train tracks on the multitrains making the safety margins so much better where you don't have to intersect with cars and trucks and buses. big difference. >> appreciate your insights. i want to move the conversation. he is a railroad and safety

experts. are you able to see where you are with the train dangling over the highway? >> i'm looking at it now. >> at first glance, what are your questions? >> well, this overpass is over some sort of a highway there. it looks like a girter bridge they are hanging off of. generally girter bridges of any type have guardrails on them. when i talk about guardrails, i'm not talking about the size. i'm talking about the middle of the track that if wheels come off, the guardrails keep from wandering too far off of the track. so i'm wondering what happened there. i keep hearing different ones talk about it. they may have struck something. i'm wondering what that could be if it was an automobile or

something somebody placed on the track as sabotage or a rock slide. >> stay with us please if you can. i want to get back to stephanie in our los angeles bureau. what's the latest? >> just looking at what some of the eyewitnesss there on the scene saw this, imagine driving to work down the 5 and a train derails right in front of you. they were seeing it before first responders were even there. one woman told cnn there was a semi truck and also cars that were crushed under the train cars. we did hear from the police department saying there were no injuries or no deaths in the cars. just welling you paint the picture of what this would look like, she said we came around the corner and it had to just have happened. one link of the train was on one side and the other on the other side of the freeway. when she came around, there were fire trucks and ambulances made their way there.

as people are trying to make their way down this i-5 corridor. looking to get still more information on this one, just give you an idea of what people were seeing on the ground. >> appreciate that and stay with us. raise your hand when we have more. richard biel, railroad operations and safety expert. back with me on the phone. richard, you heard mary earlier. the cascades train is supposed to be running south and they are trying to run at higher speeds. from your experience, what kind of testing? would there be trial runs? what would go into this before what we are watching right now. >> when you do something like that on track without the passenger service or haven't had it in a while, they would run a series of tests in advance that wouldn't have people on it. to see what they could do to maintain the schedules or see what they could do about different places where there might be restrictions on the track or slow orders on curves

or all kinds of different things like that. i wouldn't suspect this would be the first train ever over it. is that what you understand? >> the sheriff said there were passengers who left this morning on the inaugural run heading south on this train from seattle heading down to portland is what we were told. that was the path of this train. i may be asking too much, but just from your expertise, the way the train is over the edge like this, the two cars side by side, me from your expertise, what jumps out in terms of observations from what you see or the questions you have based on what you see. >> this is real speculation. it is something catastrophic that took place. i saw one picture with a locomotive that looked like it was up right. if it struck something, i would

expect to see the locomotive off to the side, but it looks like it's back in the train. whatever happened, whether the locomotive got over or past whatever they struck, a lot of times the locomotive if they strike something will damage the rail, spread the rails and cause it to be broken and a lot of the damage comes from behind. the engine will get over it most of the time. that may be what took place here. that's pure speculation. >> i want to apologize for the live feed. sometimes the cameras pull away. we have no control over that. the affiliates are trying to provide us with the best coverage possible. the crash aftermath. we are in the early mornings and there are injuries here.

they don't know how many they are. if you are being look at the pictures, what jumps out in your head? when you see obviously the heavy trauma to the train down on to the highway. >> the initial view of a derailment would be to look at the track to see if there were track defects. the next thing that i would look at would be the speed of the train. you are dealing with an inaugural movement and the first time this movement occurred. speed and track is the main thing. you would look at of course the ntsb and the federal railroad administration would be reviewing the so-called black box which contains all of the data of the train movement. at this point though it's too early to determine anything, but

those are the two issues i would be looking at initially. >> it is correct. i appreciate that. we need to be careful as to exactly what happened. given your expertise, this is the inaugural run and we have been trying to increase the speed out there on the west coast. we asked this of richard earlier, what would have happened or should have happened before this. if you are saying there is an impedibility or a defect, was there a safety issue where they had the proper alarms beforehand. what would have been done beforehand? >> since this is an inaugural run, there should have been test runs. of the speed of the train and the safety of the operation. i assume that was accomplished, but certainly with an initial run like this with high speed,

you certainly would have test runs under the exact same conditions. >> appreciate your insights. for any viewers joining us late, there is the split screen in pierce county, washington. an amtrak train heading south from seattle to portland. you can see the car dangling and running north and south. the train car dangling over the track there. as we try to get more information, the sheriff said there are injuries and casualties. we don't know the extent. this happened in the peak of monday morning rush hour on the west coast. drivers said what they saw was beyond sobering. here's what one eyewitness said. >> so i was on the opposite way. i'm far away from it now, but we came around the corner and it's sobering to say the least. we are carpooling and having

conversation and you knew when you saw it that something horrible happened because it was a passenger train. there were cars on both sides of the bridge. falling on to the freeway. >> cars on both sides. it's not just this one angle that we see. there is cars on one side of the bridge falling off on the other side as well? >> yes. there is vehicles underneath the cars. >> what types of vehicles? are they crushed by them or impacted by them? what did you see? >> they are crushed. >> it looks like a semi or passenger truck underneath the end smashed in. it was a brief moment and that's what it looked like to me. >> it must be terrifying. did you see anyone that seemed

injured? did you see any people walking about when you were there? >> there were people get being over cars stuck in traffic. there were no first responders when i was there, but an incredible amount of first responders headed that way as we continued down the freeway. >> when you came upon it, were they dangling off or did you hear anything?

>> that was totally straight on approach and across the bridge or on the curve. that can play an important part. this man was right earlier on. you always look for three things. you look for track first and mechanical problems and then human error. >> still with us, the one on the right with the train cars dangling over the highway. it's twisted metal and for trauma, please help me with the technical term in a train derailment. when you see the trauma, the car is dangling down. what does that tell you about what happened. >> well, if this were an issue or if it's an issue of employee

error, it is very important that there should have been two persons on the locomotive to assist in case there was an error involved. for example, if the train was going at excessive speeds under the conditions, a second crew member on the locomotive would have been aware of this and alerted the engine. so it is critical to have particularly in high speed train operations to have two persons in the locomotive. >> and on an inaugural run, the website said this was an inaugural run. extra safety personnel or back up personnel to keep an eye on things. >> i doubt they did.

>> it's very possible they would have had more than one person. >> i'm sorry to sbruchlt the sheriff is speaking live. let's listen. >> we have multiple fails in the train. no fatales on the roadway. as you can see by the large response, we have taken them out and people that were able to walk are under the tents being cared for by multiple groups. it's going to be a long time. there is damage to the bridge and multiple vehicles down below. damage to the ground around it. i-5 southbound will probably be closed for sometime. >> can you tell us what you have heard about injuries or casualties. >> 7:40 this morning the train derailed. multiple agents are responding. with we got to the scene, it was obvious there were fatalities

and injuries and some people were able to get off the train. multiple cars and trucks are struck by cars that left the train tracks and went down to the road. >> they have been able to walk off the train. >> people that walked off the train and being cared for and transportation coming to take

care of them. >> that's where they are in the tents behind us. can you talk about where people are being treated? >> one of the things we trained for all the time. if you have air force bases and ferries and so. this is a coordinated response between multimel fire departments and thurston and pierce county and they are working in's preplanned operation which is to get the survivors out and get the injured to the hospitals and obviously if there is fatales, they will have to deal with those later. >> i may have missed it and it's early on, but when you say multiple fatalities, does that mean dozens? >> we are just total there are multiple. >> do you know how many cars are involved on the train? >> hang on a sec. what? >> that was --

>> you heard the spokesman for the sheriff's department. if you listened, the briefing right there, a sat briefing. multiple fatalities on the train. injuries and no fatalities on the highway. the gentleman making an obvious, but important point that the freeway will be closed for sometime. sad news any time, but obvious during the holidays. you you see the records. what are the questions as they try to advance. priority one is deal with the injured and get them the treatment and care they need. what are you thinking? >> from an investigative standpoint, there is a lot of conflicting news and a lot of people are guessing as to what might have happened. the speed reports are vastly different. some reports put the train going at the high speed and the track is rated at 79 miles an hour and some reports say the train was going 80 miles an hour and some

say 40. so that would have a huge difference on the investigation. with this many cars derailed. with this report there are additional cars on the ground upside down and mangled. one would expect a fair amount of speed on that train. you think it would be moving at a good clip. a higher rate of speed. the speed will be an issue. the guardrails and the warning and the track itself. who owns it and what the maintenance was and whether it had positive train control. if it was going 81 miles an hour and it's a 79 miles an hour track, people want to know why was the speed not regulated or the 2 miles an hour should not make a difference. so those are a lot of things. they have the advantage. this is a new day for the train service. this was new service. they will have black boxes on

the train that will have captured the speed and the signalling and what transpired to set this off. >> to that point, there is often breaking news after a tragic derailment. you get conflicting reports. there will be reports in the media and from eyewitnesss who may be in a different position. there is zero doubt in your mind that the instrumentation exists that once they get to the train and grab the black boxes and the like, they will be able to put the pieces together about the speed and the other big questions quickly. >> absolutely. the speed certainly and whether there was anything on the track that they should know. the exact condition of the track whether out of alignment, there is a possibility of tampering, but there is no hint to that at this point. some of those things really can't be captured on the black box. that captures things like the throttle settings and when the braking was applied. when the whistle sounded and any

movement on it. any automatic braking that will be on the train. pretty much like a black box on a plane. it is extremely valuable. >> we are grateful to have the assistance. renee, what can you tell us about this amtrak train? >> we have been digging into this and have been on the phone with both amtrak as well as the ntsb. the ntsb continues to gather information, but when you look at the images, i have to believe they would plan on launching an investigation. however we have not received that official word from them as of yet. more about this train. the amtrak cascades train, this particular train we do know is designed specifically for high speeds. we know that it features the special technology that essentially it uses gravity to basically tilt it through curves

while it maintains that speed. the intention here is to make sure that you can shorten travel time and make it faster to get from seattle to let's say portland, oregon and shorten that time by about 25 minutes. that's the lowdown on that particular train, the amtrak cascade. looking at the images there, one of the things they want to do is get the black box. the black box will not only talk about the speed of the train at the time, but it will give them good information about what was the engineer doing at that time. were the brakes were applied. did that person do all of that. kind of hard to piece it together. everyone wants to know what happened here. the true honest answer is we really are not going to know until number one. we start speaking to the people on board that train.

number two, you want to speak to the engine and number three, they have to get out there and get the black boxes until we get all that information. we will look at the image which is really tough to look at considering you know people were in the train. we won't have many answers until they do all of those things. >> come back to us when you have new information. the secretary of homeland security has been briefed and they are headquartered in washington and she will be on the scene as quickly as possible. they are trying to report on this. from los angeles, paul, what are you hearing as you try to canvas local authorities? >> at first there was a report of massive casualties. it's hard to put it in context. down to multiple fatalities. everyone is hoping that massive doesn't mean that dozens or more. one thing that is unique with

train travel as opposed to a vehicle accident. the passengers are usually not belted in. they said that the casualties would have occurred on the train. despite how stunning these pictures are, landing on cars and on very busy interstate 5. he said there were no casualties in the vehicles. the focus turns to the train and others reporting this is one of the largest responses they have seen from emergency vehicles and the like they have ever seen. triage is a big important part of this. how many lives can be saved because of quick response. no casualties on the ground, but casualties in the train itself. >> i want to bring mary back

into the conversation. we are asking for your experience from prior investigations. this is more of a gut. when you hear the reporting and the sheriffs spokesman earlier, fatalities on the train. you see the violence at least initially, the smokesman w mamm there were injuries, but not fatalities. i hate to say it this way, but it's a small blessing when you see that car dangling and the other below it on the highway. >> amazing fortuitous blessing for the people on the ground. thank heavens for those folks. the train car itself, what

happens to the passengers, they are not belted in. they move about freely. you don't have to be in a seat. we see a lot of head injuries often. fatal head injuries and spine injuries. those kinds of things when the trains derail and that's what the emergency responders are focusing on. the head injuries can be transported and hopefully more saved. >> i know you are joining us and i want to double check. can you see the images? >> i can. >> you can? >> i can. >> i want to go back through the photos that we have from the pierce county sheriff's office to show the broken pieces. there you see the train car dangling down and another down below. if you look underneath, this is what i wanted to ask you about. right there. nowy see broken pieces down below and the rail way. that's down on the roadway. for that to break off a train as

it comes down, does that tell you anything about whether it's a speed question or whether it's a violence question? >> actually not. there is a lot of issues lately with the integrity of the guardrails themselves. there are so many pieces that they have to look at. when i was inspector general, we worked a number of cases where the guardrails were faulty or bogus and have certain amounts of strength and they did not. we can't really automatically assume that the guardrail cannot hold a speeding train in any situation like that. many times we found that the guardrails themselves were not sufficient to do the job they were installed to do. i doubt those rails that we see in the picture could have held the train. >> as we get more perspective and clearer photos, we see more than one train car down on the

highway from the tracks on the highway. we just had a photo moments ago of a train car overturned literally on its head. we tried to assess the number of injuries and you might have family members or friends, the washington state transportation is tweeting that a family reuni reuni reuni reunionification center said did not come to the scene. if you think you have friends and relatives on the train, obviously you have questions, but if you look the at scene, they are trying to help with the injured and the family center has been set up and you can get information from local authorities going to the scene at this moment is not the place to go. iment to ask you the same question. more of these photos come in of more than one train car down on the highway. you see the tracks coming down. pieces of this train have broken

here and another car overturned on its head. the team needs to get the black box and any communications happening on the train. for a preliminary looking at what is now an investigative scene, richard, to you first. >> you see the level and pieces broken off the train. is that caused by the fall? >> that can be caused by anything. the amount of destruction in the high speed accident can be so catastrophic and trying to

surmise from pieces of wreckage laying around. that was almost impossible to do. looking at the engine off to the side, it looks to me like if that was the lead engine, sometimes they do what's called a push-pull. it could have been a rear engine. it's right there. it looks to me like the derailment occurred well in advance of this overpass. it was probably bouncing around and coming off the track before it got there. it was so far off the track alignment itself that when it got to that bridge with the abutments on both side it caused everything to hit the fan and catastrophically derailed. >> stay with us. if you are just joining us at the bottom of the hour, multiple fatalities on the train itself going from seattle to portland. multiple fatalities on the

train. miraculously injuries, but no fatalities when you see the first responders right now. 77 people we are told at least so far have been taken to local hospitals for treatment. multiple fatalities. let's listen to an eyewitness from moments ago. >> it's so sad this time of the year to have something like this happen. it's very upsetting. >> it looks bad. >> yes, it is. >> did you hear anything this morning? >> no, i just had woken up and got my coffee and i started hearing the sirens and went outside to look. there is always something happening around this area. just kind of looked around and checked on my mom next door and got her up and turned on the news and we saw it.

>> and you knew this was going to be coming through? this was the first train on the new route. this was the first one. >> i wonder if they did any dry runs on this before the passengers aboard. that's my only concern. it's a terrible thing. very upsetting. >> eyewitness account there from the scene. this is amtrak train going from seattle headed to portland in the morning rush hour on the pacific northwest. you see a derailment and one car towards the highway and other cars on the highway. this is interstate 5, a very importantster state. they are still with me on the phone. larry, to you. i was asking richard before we listen to the eyewitness as you see the pictures, the

destruction and more than when we started the conversation, more cars down below, what are your questions? >> well, with that many cars derailed, it's not unusual i wouldn't think because the train was going probably at least 79 miles an hour. maybe more. if there was overspeed, this many cars would likely derail, particularly at an overpass. that's not unusual as far as i'm concerned. more important to me would be the movement of the train, speed-wise and track conditions. preliminary testing of the train movements and also the two employees being on the locomotive. i think it's very clear.

>> to our viewers, there were multiple fatalities on the train. we don't know how many. multiple injuries on the ground below. 77 people as you can see on your screen taken to local hospitals. individuals with questions about friends and family on that train 501 should call 1-800-523-9101. that is if you have questions about friends and family on that train. please don't call that number for basic information. only if you think you might have friends or family members on that train. 1-800-523-9101. a family reunion center has been set up. priority one for the first responders is treating the injured on the scene. going through the train to make sure they have everybody out of the train to try to deal with that. from an investigative

standpoint, what are steps one, two, and three. >> the first thing they do is go back on the tracks. however far it is when they see the very first wheel came off. you will start seeing where it came off of the high part of the rail. that will give them the first indication. before that happens, there may be something so catastrophic with the track or whatever that it will tell them what happened. maybe they found a wheel that disintegrated on one of the cars or maybe something to do with a piece of apparatus where the cars dropped down and caused that. they will go back to the first point of whatever happened and it will give them a good idea of what took place.

>> richard first and then to larry. when you look at that picture, you can see a car behind and the train car that is dangling over the highway. knowing what you know about the trains and the derailments and you look at this here, there are likely passengers on that car. people on the highway below trying to get to work in the morning. you see a train car like that literally dangling over the road on an interstate highway. >> well, that's a worst case scenario right there. anything to do with an overturned car or something such as this. it is virtually dangling in space. the conductor on the train if he is not incapacitated or able to move around and hopefully there may be an assistant as well. being that it's an inaugural run, they may have other railroad employees available as well. they can pry the door open to

help the people and maybe out the end of the car into the more stable cars. we don't know. if they are too bad, they have to worry for the first responders to get to them with some sort of breaking out of the emergency glass. the cars all have multiple glass windows that are designated emergency windows and look to push the window up and get in with ladders. >> as you look there, the car is dangling over the interstate and another car underneath on its side or on its head. we are continuing to get new information. multiple fatalities leaving seattle headed to portland. we don't know the numbers yet. the sheriff said at least no fatalities on the highway down below. we continue to report on this breaking news story. we will be back after a quick break.

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an amtrak train derailed with one of the cars dangling over interstate 5. train 501 was en route from seattle to portland. there were approximately 78 passengers and crew members on board. cnn said 77 people were taken to area reports for treatment. there are multiple fatalities on board the train itself, but no fatalities in the vehicles below. there were injuries though. as you see the scene playing out, all southbound lanes are blocked by the accident. they will be closed for sometime. interstate 5 southbound will be

closed for sometime. kate baldwin talked to an eyewitness about what happened. >> i was just traveling to work this morning along i-5 and we came to a halt. we tried to stop quickly to avoid running into each other. we came to a stop and looked up and see this very thing. and lots of military personnel. >> is it from your perspective, was it hanging or was it on the highway or hanging over the highway? >> so from what i could tell, something happened to cause it to come off the tracks. some cars were involved. there was a back up as a result. it's not just hanging off, but

the cars came off on to the highway there. >> for d it hit and come in contact with the cars on the highway? >> that's what it looked like. i didn't want to get too close. i don't deal with first aid so i just tried to get out of the way. >> people were getting out of their cars going to offer help? what can you tell us? what did you see? >> we were just south of the military base. you know a lot of folks in there ran out and tried to help. the military folks were stepping up. i don't have those skills. many people got out of the cars and extra clothes to help. >> i assume you are no longer in the traffic. where are you now? >> they just started turning us around and heading back north

away from the incident. >> this is very much ongoing as we speak. >> absolutely. there are a ton of first aid and cars and fire trucks and local police. they are all there. >> did you see anyone who app r appeared to be injured? >> i took that video and tried to help folks. as i was sitting in my car, you do see people being taken to first aid vehicles, the medic vehicles and on stretchers and back bores and such. >> from what you could see, how are folks being taken off the train? it's dangling on the highway. >> i'm not seeing it. i can't tell you how they are doing that. i did see some emergency personnel on the tracks trying to evaluate it. i wasn't there to speak to that.

>> right now traffic is still stopped or you are getting turned around and moved out of the way? >> we are getting moved out of the way and we are close. all the traffic that is behind is being diverted any way they can. both sides of the freeway are closed at that overpass. >> eyewitness accounts provided and they are harrowing. unimaginable to be in that train car dangling over the interstate. it's hard to imagine what it was like to be on that train. gathering and sending what it calls a team to the derailment side. they want to gather the information to help with that. they have the safety expert and an attorney and rail expert who authored the rail way safety act. let me start with you as we have

this conversation. we are trying to find out what the investigators need to find out with what happened here. just from a human perspective. looking at that train dangling over the highway. it is harrowing to think what must have happened on the train. when you hear the information, 78 beverages and five crew members. does that sound right? >> yes, it does. typically there will be just on the amtrak trains, just an engineer on the locomotive and assistance in the train itself. that's typical. what is concerning again is the point that i made before. that is had there been two persons in the locomotive.

if there were issues of employee error. the issues were with the train itself. the black box and certainly they helped determine that. the speed is an issue possibly and the track possibly. defective. there may be wheel defects on the train. these are the issues that certainly will be at the forefront of the ntsb. the black box itself will give all the instrumentation of the train operations including the signals and the brake application and the speed, etc. they will have the basic information they need to make a determination if any of those issues were involved. i think that would be the

important part of the initial investigation by both ntsb and the federal rarld ilroad administrati administration. >> back with us, mary, i want to ask you in the same context. 78 passengers and five crew members on this train of what was the inaugural run of this service. seattle to portland. if that's routine, is it sufficient? five crew on that train? >> it's probably sufficient depending on the services were for the passengers. given modern trains, less people than that can actually run the train. there were so many things that are automated on modern trains. one of the things they will in on are the reports for local media is they were modifying and testing the track and the services as early as the beginning of december. there was a lot of criticism

over opening the high speed train where there were lines where the train was required to slow down. there was one point in this route where they were going to be routed and apparently were routed off to a city and a different train track and the other one and the line track paralleling the highway. this train service was not without significant amounts of criticism from local leaders before it started. >> the speed issues and the questions now that are dealing with speed issues. human error is involved as well. urgent questions for any family members. approximately several fatalities on the train. if you have questions on the train. officials locally and trying to get information.

maria cant well following the deroyalment. for everyone affected by this, follow at washington tacoma. that's the public information office and updated information for those of you on the west coast. if you thought you had friends or passengers, you got new details. that's the spokesman for the pierce county sheriffs office. >> we have multiple fatales in the train. no fatales on the roadway. as you can see, they extraicated and they have taken them out of the train and transported to the hospitals. people that were able to walk are being cared for. there is damage to the bridge and down below. >> the sheriffs are speaking

before. sorry for the confusion. let's listen. >> what i can tell you. southbound i-5 is closed and they are working with the dot and other law enforcement agencies being diverted. we are asking people to stay off i-5. this is going to take all day if not a couple of days to get cleared and investigated. traffic is able to get through northbound i-5 within two lanes and we are providing any assistance they are asking right now and providing resources and supplies and resources to the scene having difficulty. >> i'm not sure we have the answer, but we talked a lot about the new tracks. 14 miles of new upgraded tracks that amtrak talked about. was the place where the train derailed part of that new portion? >> i don't know. i'm sorry. >> what can you tell us about injuries and fatalities? >> i can't give updates on that

at this point. i'm trying to get in touch with amtrak, but until i can get an update, i can't give information. >> is it difficult to get in touch with amtrak? >> obviously it is. my phone is blowing up and i'm having trouble getting in touch with them and they are filtering out my phone call versus media. as soon as they get back to me, i will give you more information. >> where were the injured being taken? >> was the rescue under way? >> yes, it is. >> what is happening right now? >> that would have to come from fire. i'm not at the scene and i don't know what's happening. we have a family reunion center. we ask them not to come to the scene, but du pont city hall. they have taken buses there. >> it is possible i-5 could be shut down for several days? >> i don't believe it will be

several days, but we will be investigating for several days. the i-5 for at least the remainder of the day. we are working and hopefully getting other detours to get people around the base. this is still a rescue situation. >> you heart a police briefing about the scene. the train is dangling over interstate 5 and another train car on the scene in the local area. they are saying they are on the southbound and close at least for today. releasing this statement that is a serious and ongoing emergency. they are praying for the many injured. they are doing everything to ensure that everyone has the care they need. everyone should avoid traveling i-5 and working to open

alternative routes during this emergency response. they are going on to say they are in touch with amtrak and working to get as much information as possible. the transportation department is still with me. the time we have left, the go team from the ntsb. what you are seeing and how the investigation unfolds. they are taking us through the next steps. >> first and foremost, they will get the black boxes and start the download and start the analysis on the black boxes. they have a good head start because the testing on this track is for this train and the new service. the modifications that were necessary and the evaluation of the tracks and the curbs and the speed limit. that was done and finished at the beginning of the month. the ntsb will have a lot of data to determine what amtrak did to get the service ready and if the tracks and all the moving parts

were ready to go. they will have a lot of analysis of the tracks and the situation to go back and look at to see if that was done properly and prepared to start this inaugural service and of course they will look at things because their job is to help us in the future. there are not so many losses or casualties or crashes. they will look at everything from the survivability of the train cars and the zones. they will look at the seats and the seatbelt issues. it should be a huge difference for trains. they will look at so many issues. in the long run their goal is to stop accidents and keep casualties and injuries from happening. they are going to have an awful lot of data with the black box and looking at what was done to allow the train to run high speed service over the tracks and what were the modifications. knowing the ntsb and how it works, they might know the answer right with those two things. >> excellent insight. appreciate your help throughout the hour.

this is amtrak cascades 501 en route from seattle to portland. multiple fatales on the train and injuries down below. reporters are trying to get more information. wolf blitzer picks up our breaking news coverage right now. >> i'm wolf blitzer and it's 1:00 in washington and 9:00 p.m. in moscow. thanks very much for joining us. we begin with the breaking news. police say there have been multiple fatalities after a high speed amtrak train derailed near olympia and washington. between seattle and portland with 78 passengers and five crew members on board. at least one of the cars can be seen dangling off the overpass above the highway below. following this story for us, what exactly are police investigat