‘We need EMS ASAP’: recording captures moment of deadly derailment
A dramatic audio recording reveals a crew member breathlessly reporting Monday’s deadly derailment of an Amtrak train onto a highway in Washington state.
“Amtrak 501. Emergency. Emergency. Emergency. We are on the ground,” the unidentified male crew member says at the start of the 1 1/2-minute clip.
“We are on the bridge…on the freeway. We need EMS ASAP. It looks like they’re already starting to show up.”
Following a brief back and forth, a dispatcher calmly asks: “Hey guys, what happened?”
“We were coming around the corner to take the bridge over I-5 there, right north of Nisqually, and we went on the ground,” the crew member answered.
He was apparently referring to the Nisqually Indian Reservation, which sits south of the tracks and east of Lacey, near where the crash occurred.
“Is everybody OK?” the dispatcher asks.
“I’m still figuring that out. We got cars everywhere and down onto the highway,” the crew member responds.
The Amtrak worker also says he believes the train jumped the tracks at “roughly milepost 20, 21.”
“I’m gonna make my way to the south end when I can. I’m on the north end and as soon as I know exactly where all my trains are I’ll let you know,” he says as the clip ends.
The radio transmission, captured by Broadcastify.com and posted online by CNN, involved a unidentified dispatcher for BNSF Railway, according to KOMO Radio.
At least three people were killed in the crash outside Lacey and the death toll is expected to rise, according to the Associated Press.
Officials suspect the derailment may have been caused by an object on the railway.
