ntsb is supposed to be showing up here. team will be on the ground this afternoon, and again, they will have more people showing up tonight. it could be a full year before we know exactly what happened. if they get preliminary details, they will help in other investigations in other areas of transportation safety. they will release that. typically, these cases take a long, long time to go over all the things human error, track condition, weather condition, and of course, the speed at which this train was traveling, which of course will be central to their investigation. dana? >> dana: dan springer live at the scene. for that report, trace gallagher has more from los angeles. >> before, i want to piggyback on what dan said. the 501 from seattle to portland would be along the waters, along and today was the inaugural run of the $800 million bypass. the idea behind the stretch is that it saves about 11 minutes because it avoids the slow curves and singletrack tunnels that run along the water. instead of going along the coast,

so just a couple of quick questions to the ntsb. just heard that's the spokeswoman saying that the lead investigator is en route to the scene, but if you are just joining us and just for the first time seeing these just horrific pictures here out of pierce county washington. washington state, let me fill you in on what we know and i have two people standing by to talk to me about how this could have happened. 77 people have been taken to the hospital. there were 78 passengers on this train, five crew members, people obviously were treated on the scene, as well. somehow, you heard her mention inaugural route. this was the very first day this high-speed train from seattle to portland happened and as a result is what you're looking at. somehow this train derailed. there are multiple train cars dangling off of this track. some have flipped over and you know, amazingly, of all of the cars passing below on a very busy rush hour morning no one was killed, we are told, on the highway in those cars, but you can imagine, it is just awful news

the ntsb says it is waiting to interview crew members who are hospitalized. more from dupont, washington. >> reporter: dave and christine, we're learning new information from the ntsb about the moments before this devastating train derailment. recovery here at the scene continues. what you're looking at over there is what is left of a passenger car, it just shows the force of the deadly force of a train derailment. the ntsb in their news conference saying the lead conductor at the time of the derailment was not in control of the train. he was in the passenger section, not in the cab and an engineer and a conductor trainee was in the cab. the engineer is still allowed to operate the train. the engineer though, did not hit the emergency brake. investigators have recovered both of the black boxes in the front and the rear of the train. they also are very curious about looking at the cameras, especially the one inside the cab to see what the engineer and the conductor trainee were doing right before the derailment. >> all right. thank you. >>> caught on body cam

not very many answers right now from the ntsb. this crash only happened this morning, and they're still trying to determine exactly what happened. jo ling kent is with us once again from our los angeles bureau. jo, she was asked just then about the inaugural run of this train. does it mean it was a new track, does it mean it was a new route with old track, was it refu refurbished, and so far they don't have an answer to that. >> we know it was a new service. so people were getting on celebrating this new convenience in the region. we should note the idea of opening this was to save about 10 minutes on the commute time in this quote, high-speed rail situation going from seattle down south to portland. and so the idea was to actually add two daily round trips as part of an investment from the stimulus bact back to the obama administration to actually alleviate some of the congestion in the area. what we do know right now in addition to the ntsb going and launching their investigation were that 78 people were on the train as passenge

the ntsb has a large team of investigators assigned to this scene. at least 20 are here right now looking at this from every angle. they anticipate they will be here at least a week, if not longer. as for interstate 5, the southbound lanes here where this happen remain closed, officials telling folks in the area they should be prepared to face these closures for a matter of days, if not longer. >> who will the investigators look to interview next immediately regarding the cause of the crash? >> reporter: well, they informed us today that they were actually in the process today of trying to set up times to interview the engineer and the crews from this train. keep in mind most of these folks were injured in this derailment, some of them hospitalized. so they are in the process now of setting up time. they said they plan to speak with them the next few days here. certainly they are hoping they will be able to get a good amount of information from those folks to figure out what was happening really in those moments just before the derailment happened. >

and as you pointed out, you were involved in many of them when you worked at the ntsb. you have to learn from the mistakes whether human or mechanical. you have to learn from the mistakes to make sure it doesn't happen again. what i hear you saying is you believe there are serious problems with passenger trains as opposed to cargo? >> the freight rail industry made tremendous progress over the last five years at increasing their safety record. they have invested a lot of money. the reality is on the passenger side whether we are talking about systems within cities like new york city subway or like metro or amtrak, they don't have the access to the resources that the freight guys have. the reports one after another indicated that maintenance has been deferred. in this case we know they upgraded the tracks to pick up the speed. we want to make sure we put all of the resources that should have been put there were put in place. >> stand by. i want you to join us. the cnn transportation analyst and former inspector general. give me your thoughtthoughts, m the images we are s

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 tra

ntsb investigators haven't interviewed the engineer yet. crew knew it was a 30 mile an hour limit around that curve. back to you. >> chris, thank you. right now, we're keeping an eye on flights in and out of atlanta. this morning, we've seen delays and cancellations at hartsfield-jackson airport. that airplane is still recovering after the power outage created a travel nightmare on sunday. may have caused the issue. a wire was frayed in the tunnel. officials believe a rat may have gnawed on the wire and sparked the fire. the switch caught fire and burned out critical lines knocking out the main power system an the backup power syst system. >>> a showdown in congress brings new threats of a government shutdown. lawmakers must pass a budget bill to keep the government operating past friday. republicans need democratic votes to pass a budget in the senate. but right now, the two sides disagree on spending levels, protecting some undocumented immigrants from deportation and funding for a health insurance program for low income children. >>> 6:4

the ntsb is on the scene investigating this we understand.ve us some sense of what should be happening right now. mark, if you can hear me. >> the ntsb will be dispatching a go team out to that area to begin the process of looking at this accident, understanding what happened, and ultimately, finding out what the preliminary cause was, and ultimately then making recommendations to prevent this kind of accident from happening again. >> mark, what are the most important things they will look at out here? >> they'll be looking at a number of factors. they'll be sending investigators that are experts in track, experts in signals, experts in loek motion. also they'll be looking at survival factors. all of these investigators will be up there to document the scene and determining exactly what happened. >> does it say anything to you at all that this happened, this is their inaugural run, the very first day, it happens 45 minutes into the ride. does that mean anything at all to you? >> well, that's certainly going to be a factor that they're going t

a lot of questions that the ntsb has.t shed some light on that. >> thanks so much. >>> coming up, the recent arrests of sarah palin's oldest son for allegedly beating up his father. the latest sad twist for that family. we'll take a look next. right now when you get an unlimited family plan, netflix is included. wow t-mobile covers your netflix subscription, so you can catch the hottest new movies and shows all year long on us. amazing and it's your last chance to buy any of these hot new samsung galaxy phones and get a 2nd one free. that's one samsung for you and one to gift. just in time to finish off your list. t-mobile...holiday twogether. each day justin at work... walk. and after work. he does it all with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort. to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move. a wealth of information. a wealth of perspective. ♪ a wealth of opportunities. that's the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. straightforward advice, t

live outside ntsb headquarters breaking down the details, mel. >> good morning, guys, that go team that left in washington already out withdraw dropping information telling everyone that that train was going 80 in 30 mile an hour zone. information coming from event data recorder. passengers say they felt a train was tilting too far as it was coming into a curve. and then, we've seen the result. train cars dangled over a rail bridge over interstate 5 about washington, 13 of 14 cars leaving tracks and the train was making inaugural run faster route seattle to portland, oregon, there were 80 passengers on board and 40 crew members. and at least three are confirmed dead. accident investigators say there are kawrz that have been too unstable to search. >> these are a couple cars that are not safe enough to search. we know there's nobody alive in them at this point and there's other fatales we'll find. we don't know until they can shore up the train cars and get up there and search them. >> well, the tracks for derailment happened and are owned by sound transit. bnsf railway company dispatche

ntsb investigators expect to be there for more than a week m coming through the evidence.lment happened ordered by sound transit. bns railway dispatches trains over the bypass. >> one word of caution here even though we have the information on the speed of the train ntsb board members say it's termly to tell what caused this train derailment or why the train was going too fast. >> amtrak president told reporters positive train technology to stop or slow a speeding train was not in use on this particular section of track. >> and live in southwest, i'm melanie alnwick, "fox5 local news". >> and 5:3 is it the news and and overhaul in 30 no democrats backing bill. they claim it gives too many cuts to wellthy. gop says it will save the middle class money. >> vition president was set to leave for middle east later tonight. his trip is rescheduled for next month. mr. pennsylvania felt it was important to be present in the senate just in case his tie breaking vote is needed. >> and the united states is vet owing un resolution which would have can't the american embassy in tel aviv

this while a 20-member ntsb go team is flying in tonight to investigate this crash.from seattle to portland was carrying 78 passengers and five crew members when it went off the rails in pierce county, washington, 13 of 14 cars derailed during what was the very first public use of this upgraded higher speed route. i want to begin now with cnn transportation correspondent rene marsh. renee, you've been talking to sources including amtrak. what is the latest we know about the extent of this crash? >> the big questionson how many people died in this? when you look at the images it really is devastate tolg see. the truth of the matter is, jim, we don't have hard number as far as fatalities. there are train car this have not been able to search because it's simply

that's one thing i would hope the ntsb would focus on. the safety benefits of having two qualified persons on the locomotive. the other thing that jumped out to me is fatigue. fatigue is probably the largest single safety factor in the rail industry that causes the most accidents and injuries nationwide. i'm sure that the ntsb will investigate the workweek of this engineer to determine whether or not he was fatigued. i know that in many, many accidents throughout the country, this is a primary issue that causes accidents and incidents. >> it absolutely causes accidents. when you think about cars on the road. for you, it has to be frustrated when there is so much talk about positive train control systems and so few passenger lines have them. congress mandated ptc almost ten years ago and the deadline keeps getting pushed back. is it a money issue? i hate to bring up probability and statistics. but is the issue that these railroads say, well, given how much it cost and given how many crashes we have it doesn't make financial sense, is that

said happened along frankford junction in 2015, and amtrak train number 188 crashed on a curve, ntsb says conductor was going more than double the posted limit, eight people died and about 200 others were injured and tonight with another crash on amtrak's lines, passengers and commuters hearsay they hope pt c becomes a nationwide mandate. >> i'm concerned. i think it is a problem, infrastructure and train crashes in general. i'm not too worried about taking a train tonight because things do happen and chance of it happening again recently would be pretty slim, but on a emotional level it is really scary. >> reporter: ukee and nicole, ntsb is on the scene at crash site in washington state, right now is it too early to tell exactly what cause that had wreck there but representative bob brady says he does not believe positive train control was installed in that region. i've live from the 30th street station, greg argos for cbs-3 "eyewitness news". >>> greg, thank you. "cbs evening news" with jeff glor will have much more on the deadly train derailment in washington state coming up at 6:

ntsb is headed there as well. president trump tweeting this vase tragic train derailment only underscores the need for congress to tackle and for structure. the train accident that occurred in dupont washington shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted in for structure plan must be approved quickly. $7 trillion spent in the middle east while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways and more crumbled. not for long. the renewed push comes as the g.o.p. hopes to put tax reform on the president's desk by the end of the week. we are bringing in virginia republican congressman dave bra brat. thanks for making time for us. let's talk about taxes. you have to get it across the finish line. here's what house minority leader nancy pelosi says. that sounds like the exact opposite of how you are selling it. what's true? >> the average family, single woman at home with kid is going to get over $1,000 back. 70,000 family with two kids married gets 2,000 back. you can go through it. every category is better off. the corpora

the ntsb will be out this afternoon. they will have members of the go team here late this afternoon, and more arriving from washington, d.c., tonight. to go over all of this. this is a major thoroughfare. interstate 5 going from canada all the way down to the mexican border. 60,000 vehicles per day passed through here. this highway being closed down is a major inconvenience for everybody in this region, but right now, the obvious concern is for all those in local hospitals in the condolences for those families that lost loved ones today, shep. >> shepard: the very first trip for this train on this route, dan? >> that is right. this was all done in a effort to save about 10-15 minutes off of the passenger train trip from seattle down to portland. this is a more direct route. it does not go as far west towards the puget sound. if you look at the u.s. open when it was at chambers bay, you saw the passenger saenz going right along the golf course. that was the amtrak passenger train. no longer goes that way. it goes more inl

ntsb revealing the train traveling 50 miles over the speed limit before it jumped the tracks killing at least three people. and positive train control was installed but not yet operational. gadi schwartz. good evening. >> reporter: good evening lester. if there was a stretch of track that explained exactly what happened here, it is this one. take a look. 30-mile-per-hour curve. ntsb investigators say they've recovered black box from the front of the locomotive, shows engineer didn't appear to hit the brakes before the curve. other side of the berm? absolute devastation. crews working nonstop to clear massive passenger cars after a crash that sent hundreds of tons of train and steel through the air. one moment sitting at seat, then everything moving. >> so many emotions flash through your mind, am i going to make it? that's the last thing i remember. >> train enthusiast, excited to be aboard inaugural run, now he and wife are trying to keep spirits high. >> count your blessings, try to live day to day. >> daniel was driving by. eagle scout, he immediately rushed to help. >> you pulled

it's so early, the ntsb are the best in the world. i'm sure within the next six, seven hours there will be some preliminary indication. >> kennedy: can i ask you a question? as we look at these images, it's hard to tell anything at this point. i'm sorry to leave room for speculation but can you tell us, can there be movement from the train car all the way down to the road? >> that would be one of the most difficult things to start with, stabilize that car and it appears that they have done so. they probably saved people from further injury. the cars we can't see there have been damage very passively. it looked to me that the rain was a lower rate of speed or the car would not be dangling by that. i've heard there is a 30-mile-an-hour curve coming into that area and reports saying they think they were at about 18 miles an hour. i don't know where they will come up with that information. >> kennedy: i have a question. would there be a black box on a train like there is on an airplane? >> there are recorders and they record several diffe

the ntsb has launched a go team to the scene. its job is to start the investigation of any major accident at the accident scene as quickly as possible. what witnesses describe is a terrifying scene. >> the front of it looked like it was hanging off and there was another one piled on top of -- looked like the third car was piled on top sideways. it was kind of on top of cars and cars running into it once it was on the ground. >> joining me is jolene camp. what do we know? >> our local affiliate in the seattle area is reporting that three fatalities have resulted from this train derailment. nbc news has not independently confirmed that number but our nbc affiliate is reporting three fatalities. we're talking about 78 people on this train, 5 crew members. this was a relatively empty train going southbound. the derailment was reported at about 7:40 this morning. ntsb is now headed to this area to investigate. the president, president trump has been briefed on the matter and is aware of this incident. you can see there that i-5 going

the ntsb has looked through all the videos from the train. the videos do not show any members of the crew using a personal electronic device. at six seconds before the derailment, the engineer can be heard commenting on the train's speed. the ntsb says the train was going more than twice the speed limit when it derailed and killed three people on monday. >>> safety and security is at the top of mind for travelers today. new reporting reveals how five decades of train accidents could have been stopped. nbc 10 investigative reporter mitch blocker is joining us. you have startling numbers? >> reporter: yeah, is travelers flood train stations across the country, including here at 30th street station. new reporting from the associated press is revealing what we know all too well here in philadelphia. hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries, according to ntsb records could have been prevented. we now know the critical train slowing technology called positive train control was again missing monday in washington state when it was needed most. in

ntsb investigators haven't interviewed the engineer yet. it's unclear if the crew knew it was a 30 mile an hour limit around that curve. back to you, aaron. >> chris, thank you. >>> the news 4 i-team did digging on recent train accidents. take a look. they found there were 65 total accidents involving amtrak trains last year. 26 of those were derailments. this year that number is down by 20%. we're going to post any updates on yesterday's amtrak derailment in the nbc washington app. >>> it's 5:04. we're following a developing story in southeast d.c. right now, d.c. police are searching for the gunman who killed a teenager at a community center basketball court. on bruce place southeast at the frederick douglass community center. people there told news 4 the teen was on the court when someone robbed and then shot him. he died at the scene. the victim's name has not been released. >>> this morning, a d.c. woman is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries from a fire. it started inside a first floor apartment last night. a second woman a

the enit ntsb is looking into t cause of that crash. >>> and the tsa has a reminder, leave your weapons at home, people. check it out. >> unless you're an air marshal. >> she's are some of the things the agency has put on display. they've actually confiscated all these things at airports in south florida. >> at least 135 airports, and they're hoping more travelers doesn't mean more

the ntsb will be almost certainly responding. i would expect the federal railroad would do the same. it's a state d.o.t. investigation. you'll have a lot of parties trying to figure out what happened on this brand new run on the west coast. it's called the cascades line. running from seattle down to portland. this incident taking place 40 miles south of seattle or so. we're told about 70, 75 people were on board the train at the time. there was this great sense of excitement in the morning because this was the day the inaugural day for this new line. people who were on board to begin with were telling our local affiliate they were excited about this new line, helping to relieve congestion and open up major commuter line, high speed commuter line on the pacific coast and have this happen on day one is a real shocker. that leads to a lot of questions. whether there might have been any rob wiproblem with the upgr tracks, with the trains the on the tracks. you have to assume they did a lot of testing before they opened the line up. n

>> the ntsb issues an overnight update on the deadly train deflate washington state. >> a man is gunned down in a basement bedroom while his family is upstairs asleep. >> congress is scheduled to start voting on the gop tax reform bill. we'll break down what it could mean for your bank account. >> good morning. 5:30 on this tuesday december 19th. let's go over to meteorologist, david murphy to see what it's going to feel like out there and karen rogers has help on the roads. good morning. >> good morning. it feels good out there. >> really does. we've had an awful lot of mornings lately where we've been stepping outside in the 20's and 30's. not this morning. we're looking at cloud cover moving across the region and there's a couple of sprinkles and showers, too. let's get that out of the way. it's really not too bad. most of this coming over lancaster county into chester county right now. the movement is from west to east and niece are light sprinkles and showers. some of them getting close to reading, allentown eventually picking up some of this as well. doesn't look like there's as m

they will also come under the scrutiny of the ntsb.that's why congress set up this independent board many decades ago so that all issues are addressed. now, as you probably know, charles, the ntsb can't force -- they only make recommendations. after they do the factual investigation, they do the analysis and establish a probable cause or causes. and then they'll most importantly, i believe, they'll make recommendation. but it's up to the fra, to the track owners, and to amtrak to implement these. and we all know that these companies use a sharp pencil when looking at cost-benefit analysis. i hate to say it. but sometimes they'll decide they rather have the lawsuit or whatever, than fix the problem. charles: the lawsuit that and the deaths that accompany these lawsuits? >> absolutely and the injuries. and, obviously, fra is a government organization. and they come under the executive branch, so they can have some heat from both if they fail to implement previous recommendation. but this mayor's recommendation is very interesting. i'm su

in the meantime, the ntsb is obviously is beginning to move.ederal railroad administration will probably be responding. name there's a major incident involving loss of life, they spopd, as we respond, as well, of course, as amtrak. so this is very early moments. and the federal response at this moment is very much dependent upon what the locals are saying. now, a state dot spokesperson is confirming that there were 75 people onboard the derailed portion of this train. our local affiliate was saying there were 250 people in total onboard this train. i'm not sure if that dot spokesperson is referring only to the cars involved. and we don't have a number of injuries or anything else of that nature. >> tom, we have an update. it just came across here. it's from the pierce county spokesman, ed troyer. he says there have been multiple casualties as a result of this derailment. the casualties include multiple injuries and fatalities. that's the first confirmation of loss of life on this derailment. those trains jumping the tracks. some of the cars, as

. >> reporter: ntsb says investigators are only just beginning to piece together exactly what happened. >> it is a little too early to know right now we are sending investigators on the scene. >> reporter: derailment left cars dangling of a bridge and on interstate five below dramatic images shows cars crumbled object top of each other below the tracks. president trump had this to say about the accident. >> our deepest sympathies and most heartfelt prayers for victims of the train derail ment in washington state we are closely monitoring the situation and coordinating with local authorities. >> reporter: the pierce county sheriff's office reports most of the injuries and fatalities happened on board the train, not the highway below. the state department of transportation, says that the south side of the interstate, will remain closed, indefinite ly. and here is a live picture from the scene, of the derailment, as you can see train cars and vehicles from the highway crush with debris every where. highway is closed once again indefinitely as investigators work on find out exactly what ha

we found out from the ntsb that the emergency braking system kicked in. it doesn't even appear as if the brakes were ever applied as they were coming into this curve. >> do we know whether the engineer survived and has he or she been interviewed? >> yes, the engineer survived. the conductor who was also in the cab survived. they have both been hospitalized but have not been interviewed. the ntsb says that will happen over the next couple of days. >> dan springer in washington state tonight. >>> fire investigators are trying to determine what caused a two alarm house fire early this morning that killed one person in concord. firefighters were called to the home just before 6:30 today. when they arrived, the roof was engulfed in flames. soon after, fire crews say the roof collapsed. flames reached some nearby powerlines making it dangerous for fire crews and for neighbors concerned about the elderly woman who lived inside. > [ indiscernible ] >> powerlines very, very high. i go out and try to see what happened to the old lady. >> after the fire was out, fir

that's according to a news conference the ntsb held. focusing on is trying to retrieve every piece of evidence. what you're looking at there is what is left of a passenger car. that gives you the idea of the horrific force of a train derailment. the ntsb says they're no closer yet to understanding exactly why, but getting more details about the moments before the crash. the ntsb says at the moment amtrak 501 derailed the train's lead conductor was in the passenger section not in the cab. instead the engineer and a conductor in training were in the cab. the engineer still allowed to operate the train. >> under amtrak policy he couldn't operate the train unless he was qualified and familiar with this territory. so the answer would be yes, within the preefs two weeks he'd been qualified to operate on the territory. >> reporter: but the ntsb says the crew did not hit the emergency break before the derailment. it was automatically saactivate. but still no answer why on its very first run at a new passenger route the train sped at 80 miles pe

the ntsb is on the scene. the final cause determination could take months.e muntean, wusa9. >> this was the first day of amtrak service along that route. we'll be keeping a close eye on the ntsb's investigation into how this happened and bring you updates here on the news at 11:00. >>> let's move from the rails to the runways. that power outage in atlanta is still causing travel headaches and they aren't over yet. expect a few more cancellas power is back on, but delta and other airlines canceled about 400 flights today. by the time everything is back on schedule as many as 20,000 flyers will have had their plans changed by the fire and resulting power outage. it was a massive inconvenience to be sure, but to put it into perspective, the stranded travelers were there for hours or maybe a day, but in puerto rico tonight 30% of the island is still waiting for power to be restored. it's been 89 days since it was knocked out by hurricane maria, 89 days. >>> republicans are making a list and checking it twice. is that tax bill naughty or nice? right now the polit

the ntsb tells me that's just a snapshot. if the train was accelerating or decelerating. they'll be going over the data recorder and looking for the second black box at the front of the train. and they'll always be interviewing the crew members. dave and pam -- >> we know this was a brand new service and you talked about how some communities objected to the service because they felt it was too fast for the area. any talk of how much testing was done before the trip with passengers on board? >> reporter: they did do multiple trips, multiple tests through here. and the last was in february of this year. this is the first time that they had a full passenger load. they hadn't done it with that many people on board. that changes the way a train behaves. but there were only 85 and that's way below the max capacity. over loading we don't believe is the problem. i was pressing the vice chair this morning. who have you talked to? what do you know? very little at this point. and they'll be talking to the eyewitnesses, the people down b

ntsb investigators are now heading to the scene out in washington state. multiple deaths are reported. most of the 84 people onboard were taken to the hospital. some local officials had warned these new modified trains could be dangerous and might lead to a fatal accident like this. also breaking, president trump unveils his new national security strategy, casting china and russia as global rivals and revisionist powers. mr. trump did not mention russia's election meddling in his formal speech, but it is referenced in the written version of his policy, despite reports that the president still doesn't believe moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election. in the russia probe, house investigator have said interviewing more key witnesses today, including the british publicist who organized that trump tower meeting back in 2016 when donald trump jr. and others from the campaign expected to get russian dirt on hillary clinton. sources tell cnn that the president believes the russian probe is nearing an end and that he's expecting special counsel robert mu

investigators with the ntsb are on washington, d.c. to that crash site. they will no doubt take a close look at the process and interview those operating the train. i'm lindsey mastis at the "live desk." michelle: thank you. when the 20 ntsb investigators arrive they will find a mangled mess and technology giving unique looks at the damage. cameras were rolling as the first responders use drones to search through the debris. both for survivors and evidence of what went wrong. jonathan: the abc7 team and the sister station in washington working to bring you the latest on the deadly derailment. get updates around the clock by downloading the free abc7 news app. michelle: breaking font, nine people treated for dangerous carbon monoxide exposure. all will recover. this could have ended much differently if not for the family carbon monoxide detector. jonathan: developing right now there appears to be a major break in the hunt for men behind a cr stretched across the area. violent men targeting cell phone stores. this case has puzzle pieces still to put togethe

it seems the ntsb son their way right now. this is a planned new service, just started this morning. the maiden service, if you will. this comes after a pretty significant investment in this amtrak section called the kaskade line. we don't know from ntsb what the condition of the rails were, but 78 passengers on that. 5 crew members at the time of the derailment first reported at 7:45 a.m. eastern time. 10:30 eastern, ali. >> images, so hard to understand. jo, thanks. we'll come back to you when you have more reporting. jim formen and jo lilean kent. and we know there you multiple dead. brings in someone from the area who knows more about this new service. don anderson, make of lakewood, washington. thanks for joining me, mayor. you were one of the many people concerned about the speed of are trains that would travel through these small communities. you attempted to change the switch on this route. we're trying to establish the cascade -- the train's service hadn't been established a while. we don't know the rails are new. the

a team of ntsb investigators are on their way to dupont, washington. take a look at some of the pictures. you can see from the aerial view. several of the train's cars ended up upside down with the roofs torn off and scattered across the hillside. six passengers on the train have died. the number of fatalities is expected to rise. the pierce county sheriff's office in washington says none of the people driving on the highway died although several motorists were injured in this. the associated press is reporting that an official indicates that the train may have struck something on the track. this was the first time that the train was carrying passengers. it's unlikely that the crash was caused by a maintenance issue on the track. the official cause of the derailment is not known. and the lead investigator is expected to arrive at the crash scene by tonight. >> he's accompanied by ntsb staff with expertise in operations, mechanical, track, signals, human performance, and survival factors. >> on the ground near the crash scene there were several medical

michelle: an ntsb go team is on the way. abc7 team coverage begins with lindsey mastis who has more of the emergency call. lindsey: radio transitions from amtrak moments after the crash. panic of what just transpired. from the air, you can see how jumbled the cars are as they derailed. one dangling down over the highway below. several vehicles were hit. the wheels were ripped off some of the vehicles -- some of the cars as they derailed. tonight we know all the dead were on board that train. another 77 people were taken to hospitals. state troopers tell us no one on the ground was killed. listen closely to how an amtrak employee on that train describes what happened. >> we are coming over the corner. on the ground. >> is everybody okay? >> i'm still figuring that out. we have cars everywhere. down on to the highway. lindsey: this is a new train route for this train. today's voyage was the inaugural run. part of a $181 million project. the ntsb will no doubt take a close look at the project as well as interviewing and operati

so the ntsb is hoping to interview crew members the next couple of days or so. they are trying to respect their injuries but make sure they get their information. the emergency brake was not activated by the engineer. it was activated automatically on the train. and because this was the maiden voyage of this new route, for two weeks they have been running nonrevenue trains on this line. it was not the first run ever they had done with this train. of course, though, with two people being in the cab, they are looking at distractions that could have played a part in what happened. they said there are two cameras, one faces inside the train cab and one that faces out. both severely damaged. they are sending them back to the ntsb to extricate the video and see what may have happened. two people have been identified. james hamry and zach wilhoot. they were on that train and lost their lives. >> that's terrible, stephanie. what a tragedy. thank you very much for the reporting from there. now to this next accident. mexican authorities are leading the investigation into

the ntsb expected to be on scene at least a week. >> we don't know at this point.s too early to tell. that's why we want to carefully look at the track and the signal and the human performance. we hope interviewing the crew and hopefully find out more information if they can help us figure this out. >> officials did not say whether a positive train control system could have prevented this tragedy. that's a system by which you can slow down the train going too fast. meantime, we're hearing more and more stories of heroism and survival. the stories keep coming. first responders used whatever they could to get in the train cars as they hung over the trustle. three people were killed. we don't know how many are critical. everyone that survived is grateful to be alive. >> after getting myself upright and my legs and i saw her legs and i shook one. she shook it back. i thought oh! i said are you all right? she said i think so. there was a body lying there. he hardly had any clothes on. the clothes were ripped off. he was obviously dead. >> just terrible stories. stories

also accompanying the team are members of the ntsb's office of transportation disaster assistance ornd the office of media relations. this accident meets the criteria of the rail passenger disaster family assistance act. our tda specialists are already working closely with officials at the scene locally as well as with amtrak to assist them in their efforts to support all of those who have been affected by this accident. several of our investigators on the west coast will be arriving on scene this afternoon. the rest of our go team expect to arrive at the scene late tonight. for the latest information on media briefings, i encourage you to follow us on twitter at ntsb underscore newsroom and our web site is ntsb.gov. again, we are just launching our go team, and we will have more information after we arrive on scene and start the investigation. we'll be holding a number of media briefings at the scene over the next few days in washington state. now, i'd be happy to take a few questions, and if you'd like to ask a question, please raise your hand, and i will recognize you. and then pl

this, as overnight ntsb giving more clues to what may have gone wrong here. >> preliminary indications are that the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour track. >> reporter: investigators announcing that this mangled amtrak train was traveling almost three times above the speed limit before jumping the tracks and hurdling over an overpass. >> things just started to tip over and as it was going on around and all of a sudden ended up on its side and everything went dark. >> reporter: the train making its first run from seattle to portland after a multimillion dollar track upgrade was not yet using safety technology designed to automatically stop a train from speeding when the deadly derailment occurred. >> track 501, emergency, emergency, emergency. we are on the ground. >> is everybody okay? >> i'm still figuring that out. we've got cars everywhere. down on to the highway. >> reporter: authorities say the target date to have the safety technology, the positive train control system working spring of next year. mayor of a nearby town expressing separate concerns a

the ntsb will certainly look at this issue and make that determination. another issue in my mind is, in the rail industry primarily in the freight industry, the issue of fatigue is a major issue in causing accidents and injuries. i would like for them to investigate this issue. it should not be an issue in the passenger service issue because the employees know when they are to go on duty, but it's something that should be looked at. i want to clarify something that the prior person stated positive train control will be on all railroads at the end of the year. the regulations mandate that the positive train control systwillt on only 30%. >> you will hear it's politics from some, money from others. what's the hurdle there in terms of that positive train control? we need to go back maybe 30 years, the rail industry from the very instance that the ntsb made a proposal for positive train control, the rail industry opposed that safety device. what has happened over the years is that the rail industry has said they can't afford it. but the railroads, particularl

the ntsb, we will be watching and carry that live as well. a spokesperson for the pierce county sheriff's department joins us as we are so glad you are with us right now because we've been getting updates from the ground. what can you tell us is the latest? >> right now we believe everybody is off the train except for the ones fatally injured and they've transported everybody out of here. you can see by the photos, this is the bridge that intersects with southbound i-5. there are cars upside down and trucks and vehicles that collided when the train came off the bridge. multiple jurisdictions responded including our military base out here. this is the one of the things that all agencies across the country prepare for and hope nothing ever happens but unfortunately it happened here. they were able to clear the train out very quickly, got passengers out on the way to family reunification spots and get the injured to the hospital. unfortunately there are some fatalities. as far as the numbers go, the state patrol will be putting those numbers out

. >> the ntsb says it's not known what caused the train to derail and it's too early to know why it was going so fast. kenneth craig is in washington with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, ann marie. still a massive scene out here and this is where it all happened. take a look down the interstate here. you can see that crumbled mess of a train that we now know was going 50 miles an hour faster than it should have been. >> investigators trying to figure out what caused the train derailment in washington state that killed at least three say they have recovered the event data recorder from the rear of the train. the national transportation safety board says information so far indicates speed may have played a role. >> preliminary indications are that the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour track. >> reporter: this was the first trip for the new seattle to portland route. one local official seems to have predict just a few weeks ago that something like this would happen. don anderson had been very vocal at a city council meeting earlier t

ntsb says it has been recommending safety features like automatic braking technology known as positive train control for decade. >> it certainly does prevent accidents that are over speed accidents that cause derailments. >> reporter: former ntsb chair says is there one simple reason the technology isn't in use every where. >> because of the dollars that need to be spent that delayed implementation. >> reporter: this 15-mile stretch of track in washington was a 180 million-dollar project, aimed at speeding up services bye-bye passing a more curvey route with single track tunnels and freight traffic. stay with "eyewitness news" as we keep you up to date on the amtrak train derailment in washington state, when we're not on the air get very latest on line at cbs philly.com. >>> we have breaking news just in the g.o.p. led tax reform plan just hit a snag, hours after the house approved the bill, democrats say that three provisions in the measure violates senate rules, and it will have to be amended and house will to have vote again, tomorrow. now the house approved the bill this afternoon

the ntsb is sending a 20-member team to investigate as we speak. joining me now by front is brook brovo with the washington state patrol. what can you tell us about the search for people who still might be inside the derailed cars? >> i'm being told that all of the derailed cars and all of the vehicles on the ground have been searched. >> at this point, they have all been searched? >> that's what i have been told, fire crews and rescues -- they have searched all of the cars so our firm number at this point is three casualties. however, there are some very critically injured people so we don't know if that number will change. >> this is an important development for us. up until this point we were led to believe that some of the cars were not safe enough to go in. at this point, you believe all the cars have been searched so there are no people, as far as you know, left inside? >> not from what i'm being told. fire has said that they have searched all of the cars and that is the information i'm given at this time. >> three people killed, many more in

the ntsb is waiting to question him as to why the train was going 50 miles per hour over the sped limit. he was not alone in the cabin when ac track 501 derailed in dupont, washington. and they were looking to see if that was a distraction. >> it's protocol for us to look at all of the cell phone records of all the crew members wherever there is an accident of this type. >> the ntsb says that the emergency brake was not trigger by the engineer but automatic when the train derailed and it was equipped with a system called positive train control that can automatically slow a speeding train but it was not activated. congress repeatedly delayed deadlines requiring it on major rail lines nationwide. >> the crash killed three people among them zach willhoyt and jim homray. and at least seven people remain in intensive care. channel 6 "action news." >>. >>> well the morning commute became a nightmare for drivers in bucks county when a crane malfunctioned on i-95. and traffic was brought to a stand still near newportville road at 4:30 this morning. it's all due to head sign by penndot. they wer

and it has abandoned rules for stricter sleep apnea testing ie ntsb recommendations.ad spokesman under president obama. >> some of the actions by this administration are definitely moving us backward and not forward on having safer rail system. >> the current department of transportation explained the decision this way. in terms of safety plans they said they needed time to renew comments with reference to sleep apnea they felt existing safety programs and regulations would be sufficient. >> the cbs "overnight news" will be right back. i just need a second. is your weight holding you back? [male narrator] are everyday tasks getting harder and harder to do? did you see this? hm? your cousin's in the hospital from a heart attack. r] health risks associated with excess weight or obesity can be serious. but you can do something about it. i know you're worried. i found this. [narrator] take the your weight matters challenge. visit your weight matters dot org where you'll find free resources to help you take control. you can start improving your life right awa