Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above Monday, Dec. 18, 2017, in DuPont, Wash. The Amtrak train making the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above Monday, Dec. 18, 2017, in DuPont, Wash. The Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a faster new route hurtled off the overpass Monday near Tacoma and spilled some... (Associated Press) 
 
 DUPONT, Wash. (AP) — Federal officials confirmed an Amtrak train was hurtling 50 mph over the speed limit when it careened off an overpass south of Seattle, spilling cars onto the highway below and killing at least three people. 
 
 Bella Dinh-Zarr, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said at a Monday night news conference that information from the event data recorder in the rear locomotive showed the train was traveling at 80 mph in a 30 mph zone when it derailed at 7:34 a.m. Mangled train cars ended up on top of each other - and one hung precariously over the freeway. 
 
 When the clanging of metal and screeching stopped at first it was quiet. Then came the screams. 
 
 After the crash, the injured called out as rescuers — including people who had been in cars on their morning freeway commute — rushed to help. One of the train passengers was Emma Shafer, who found herself at a 45-degree angle staring at the seats in front of her that had dislodged and swung around. 
 
 "It felt oddly silent after the actual crashing," Shafer said. "Then there was people screaming because their leg was messed up ... I don't know if I actually heard the sirens, but they were there. A guy was like, 'Hey, I'm Robert. We'll get you out of here.'" 
 
 Dinh-Zarr said it's not yet known what caused the train to derail and that "it's too early to tell" why it was going so fast. 
 
 Positive train control — the technology that can slow or stop a speeding train — wasn't in use on this stretch of track, according to Amtrak President Richard Anderson. 
 
 In 2015, an Amtrak train in Philadelphia was traveling at twice the 50 mph speed limit as it entered a sharp curve and derailed. Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured when the locomotive and four of the train's seven passenger cars jumped the tracks. Several cars overturned and ripped apart. 
 
 A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 79 mph (127 kph) to 30 mph (48 kph) for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, which is where the train went off the tracks. 
 
 The chart, dated Feb. 7, was submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration in anticipation of the start of passenger service along a new bypass route that shaves off 10 minutes for the trip between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. 
 
 Kimberly Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, said speed signs are posted 2 miles (3 kilometers) before the speed zone changes and just before the speed zone approaching the curve. 
 
 Eric Corp, a councilman for the small city of DuPont near the derailment, said he rode the train with about 30 or so dignitaries and others on a special trip Friday before the service opened to the public Monday. 
 
 "Once we were coming up on that curve, the train slowed down considerably," he said, adding that "in no way did it make me feel like we were going too fast." 
 
 The train was not full. Authorities said there were 80 passengers and five on-duty crew members on board when it derailed and pulled 13 cars off the tracks. Authorities said there were three confirmed deaths. More than 70 people were taken for medical care — including 10 with serious injuries. 
 
 About two hours after the accident, a U.S. official who was briefed on the investigation said he was told at least six people were killed. The official said he had no new information to explain the discrepancy in the numbers. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. 
 
 In a statement, the FBI said local police were the primary responders and there was no information suggesting "an elevated risk to Washington residents." 
 
 In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, the conductor can be heard saying the train was coming around a corner and was crossing a bridge that passed over Interstate 5 when it derailed. 
 
 Dispatch audio also indicated that the engineer survived with bleeding from the head and both eyes swollen shut. 
 
 "I'm still figuring that out. We've got cars everywhere and down onto the highway," he tells the dispatcher, who asks if everyone is OK. 
 
 Aleksander Kristiansen, a 24-year-old exchange student at the University of Washington from Copenhagen, was going to Portland to visit the city for the day. 
 
 "I was just coming out of the bathroom when the accident happened. My car just started shaking really, really badly," he said. 
 
 The back of his train car was wide open because it had separated from the rest of the train, so he and others were able to jump out to safety. 
 
 The train was making the inaugural run on the new route as part of a $180.7 million project designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound that's bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic. 
 
 The new bypass was built on an existing inland rail line that runs along Interstate 5 from Tacoma to DuPont, near where Train 501 derailed. 
 
 ___ 
 
 This story has been updated to reflect that authorities said Monday night that three people died. A U.S. official said earlier that six people were killed. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Flaccus reported from Portland and Sisak reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press staffers Manuel Valdes in Dupont, Sally Ho and Phuong Le in Seattle and Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report. 
 
 ___ 
 
 For complete coverage of the deadly derailment, click here: https://www.apnews.com/tag/TrainDerailment . ||||| CONTINUING UPDATES: Train was 50 mph over limit before deadly derailment 
 
 An Amtrak train making the inaugural run of a new route between Portland and Seattle derailed at high speed early Monday morning near Olympia, killing three and sending more than 70 to hospitals when railcars hurtled off an overpass onto vehicles traveling on Interstate 5 below. 
 
 Authorities haven't released the names of those killed or hurt when 13 cars of the Portland-bound train jumped the tracks while traveling about 80 mph in Dupont, about 40 miles south of Seattle. At least 10 victims suffered serious injuries, authorities said. 
 
 Kimberly Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, confirmed to The Associated Press that the speed limit at the point where the train derailed is 30 mph. Speed signs are posted two miles before the speed zone and immediately before the speed zone approaching the curve where the train left the tracks, she said. 
 
 Positive train control — a technology that can slow or stop a speeding train — wasn't in use on the stretch of track, according to Amtrak President Richard Anderson. 
 
 Amtrak derailment occurred on highly anticipated new route 
 
 The Associated Press mid-afternoon Monday cited a U.S. official as saying the train hit something that sent it off the tracks. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity; by mid-evening that account had not been confirmed. 
 
 Earlier reports had said as many as six were killed. But at a news conference early Monday night, officials with the Washington State Patrol and West Pierce Fire and Rescue Officials said three had died. They did not address the discrepancy. 
 
 It was unclear whether the deaths were I-5 travelers or those on the train, which carried 80 passengers, five crew members and a technician. State patrol later announced 72 people were transported to hospitals from the scene including four with moderate injuries and nine with minor injuries. There were 19 people who weren't hurt and have since been reunited with their families. 
 
 Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Brooke Bova said investigators are expected to work through the night at the scene. Members of the National Transportation Safety Board are involved, she said. 
 
 Southbound I-5 was closed indefinitely, and northbound travelers were caught in a massive backup throughout Monday. 
 
 Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste said cranes were being brought in to help remove rail cars. The state Department of Transportation will need to inspect the bridge before reopening southbound Interstate 5, he said. 
 
 The southbound stretch is expected to remain closed during the Tuesday morning commute and possibly for several days, transportation authorities said, who asked drivers to avoid the highway in either direction near DuPont and find alternate routes. 
 
 Jay Sumerlin, a West Pierce Fire and Rescue battalion chief, said the rescue effort wasn't easy, particularly because some train cars were dangling from the overpass. He said jaw tools, air chisels and different forms of saws were used to get into some of the crushed cars. Ladders were also used to reach victims. 
 
 "It was just a difficult place to be," he said. 
 
 Sumerlin described the day as shocking and surreal because crews have had mock training scenarios involving train cars dangling over a highway. 
 
 "Everybody comes in and goes, 'That's not going to happen.' Well, here we are, it's exactly what happened," he said. "I'm glad we trained to that level, because today was one of those days." 
 
 President Donald Trump tweeted his first public comments on the crash mid-morning, connecting the derailment to a need for increased spending on infrastructure. 
 
 "The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!" 
 
 Derailment turns excitement to dismay at Portland's Union Station. 
 
 Officials have not established that infrastructure played a role in the derailment. 
 
 About 10 minutes later, he tweeted again, saying his "thoughts and prayers" were with everyone involved and praising the first responders. 
 
 Bloodworks Northwest issued an urgent appeal for blood, especially O-type blood, AB plasma and platelets. Donations can be made at 9320 N.E. Vancouver Mall Drive, Suite 100, Vancouver, WA 98662. For more information, go to bloodworksnw.org or call 800-398-7888. 
 
 Amtrak released a statement late Monday afternoon, saying it was working closely with families of passengers. It established a Passenger Reception Center and public hotline at 800-523-9101 for those with question about family or friends. 
 
 Anderson, the Amtrak president, said he was "deeply saddened by all that has happened today." 
 
 In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, a railroad employee who was onboard can be heard saying the train had been coming around a corner and crossing a bridge that passed over I- 5 when it derailed. 
 
 "We've got cars everywhere and down onto the highway," he tells a dispatcher, who asks if everyone is OK. "I'm still figuring that out." 
 
 The train was part of Amtrak's Cascades service, which is owned by the Washington Department of Transportation in partnership with the Oregon Department of Transportation. The daily service is run by Amtrak as a contractor. 
 
 Some Amtrak trains continued to run between Portland and Seattle, bypassing the scene of the derailment. The rail system said trains 504 and 509 had been canceled, and that no alternate transportation would be provided. 
 
 But it had not canceled other scheduled trains, including 517, 505 and 507 from Seattle to Portland and trains 518, 14, 506 and 508 from Portland to Seattle. 
 
 Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency. 
 
 The new train route was part of a $180.7 million project intended to cut 10 minutes off the stretch between Tacoma and Olympia by running alongside I-5 instead of hugging the Puget Sound. It also had fewer curves - limiting the need to slow down - and single-track tunnels where passenger trains must yield to passing freight trains. 
 
 Track testing began in January and February in advance of Monday's launch and continued through at least July, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. 
 
 The tracks, known as the Point Defiance Bypass, were previously owned by BNSF and were used for occasional freight and military transport. 
 
 Don Anderson, the mayor of Lakewood, Washington, a city along the route, had been critical of the new line, and he had predicted a deadly crash. But Anderson thought it would involve a fast-moving train hitting a car or pedestrian at a crossing. 
 
 Doug Mitchem, 68, got up Monday morning in his Centralia home and turned the TV on. News of the derailment came on, and Mitchem started to worry, he told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an interview. 
 
 His son Drew, an avid train enthusiast, had planned to ride the train from Tacoma to Olympia with a friend because they wanted to be on the first train on this new track. 
 
 Mitchem tried to call his son's cell phone, but no answer. He tried a few more times. Still nothing. Then, around 8:20 a.m., he got a call from a woman who said she had seen Drew, who was OK. Paramedics had taken him to Allenmore hospital in Tacoma with a few broken ribs and, possibly, a broken back. 
 
 Half an hour later, Drew Mitchem called his father from the hospital. He said he had been hurled from the train. 
 
 Doug Mitchem said he will go with a daughter and grandson to see his son tomorrow. He's going to bring him a set of fresh clothes, he said, because Drew clothes had to be cut off. 
 
 In Portland, other train enthusiasts had been ensconced in Union Station from about 6 a.m., excited to greet the first train on the new line. 
 
 Dan McFarling, 70, was there with a therapy dog to talk to people about the importance and safety of rail travel. A longtime member of the Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates, he said he was in shock when he first heard the news. 
 
 "It immediately made me realize our role today would be different that what we had planned," McFarling said, choking up. 
 
 Mid-afternoon, about 10 passengers who had been on the derailed train arrived at Union Station by bus. They declined to speak to the media, but Red Cross spokeswoman Monique Dugaw said the disaster relief organization was working to take care of their immediate needs. 
 
 "We're talking with them," she said, "making sure they have the next steps in place to have a hotel room or to be reunited with their family." 
 
 Dugaw described the passengers as "in shock." 
 
 Hundreds of people came to the aid of those involved in the derailment, according to those at the scene. Among the Good Samaritans was Nate Selden, a Portland neurosurgeon, who helped two dozen people. 
 
 Selden was driving to Seattle with his son, when traffic slowed a few miles south of the derailment. When they got to the scene, Selden quickly started helping first responders triage victims. 
 
 The younger patient he saw was an infant that had been thrown from their mother's arms. But the baby seemed OK. 
 
 "This little infant appeared completely unharmed," Selden said, calling that incident "one of few moments of joy in that devastating scene." 
 
 Reporters Fedor Zarkhin, Jim Ryan, Lizzy Acker, Elliot Njus, Molly Harbarger and Molly Young contributed to this report. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| An Amtrak passenger train derailed near Olympia on Monday morning at a curve in the tracks. It had been southbound from Seattle on the inaugural run of a new service. 
 
 An Amtrak train on its inaugural run of a newly opened, faster rail line careened off the tracks near Olympia early Monday, sending rail cars off an overpass onto rush-hour traffic on Interstate 5 in a derailment that killed at least three people, injured scores of others and littered the freeway and nearby woods with a twisted chain of wreckage. 
 
 Aside from the dead, about 80 people suffered injuries ranging from minor scrapes to life-threatening wounds and were taken to various hospitals for treatment. 
 
 Passengers who survived the deadly wreck and motorists who witnessed it later recounted a surreal domino effect as, one by one, 13 of the train’s 14 railcars toppled from the track, with parts of the train left dangling from the railway span. 
 
 Shortly after 7:30 a.m., the Portland-bound train had just come out of a curve when it plunged off the tracks with nearly 80 passengers and seven crew members aboard, along a stretch of the just-opened Point Defiance Bypass in DuPont. 
 
 An Amtrak passenger train derailed near Olympia on Monday morning. It had been southbound from Seattle on the inaugural run of a new route. Transportation reporter Mike Lindblom explains what we know. (The Seattle Times) 
 
 As the train’s locomotive and trailing railcars spilled off the tracks, they slammed into a semitruck and a tractor-trailer as well as five other vehicles that had been heading down the freeway toward Olympia during the busy morning commute. 
 
 “It sounded like being on the inside of an aluminum can being crushed,” said Chris Karnes, a Tacoma software developer who was among those riding the train when it jumped the track. “And then we were not on the tracks anymore.” 
 
 The train’s lights blinked out and passengers heard “crumpling and crashing and screaming from people,” Karnes said. 
 
 Officials did not immediately say what caused the crash, though experts and witnesses speculated the train’s speed was a factor. Only the train’s rear locomotive remained on the tracks. A late-night news conference by National Transportation Safety Board officials verified the train was going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. Officials said they had no other information. 
 
 Authorities had not identified the dead as of Monday evening. 
 
 Emergency medical responders battled stalled traffic stretching for miles from the crash site to take the injured to hospitals in Tacoma, Lakewood, Gig Harbor, Olympia and at nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord. A number of the injured had been treated and released as of Monday afternoon, but others weren’t as lucky. 
 
 At least five patients taken to Madigan Army Medical Center had been admitted to the intensive-care unit, according to a statement from the hospital. Three patients underwent orthopedic surgery at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia; two others with severe injuries were still being treated late Monday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma. 
 
 The train’s conductor and engineer survived but were disoriented, said Detective Chris Bailey of the Steilacoom Public Safety Department, who was one of the first responders on the scene. Their names weren’t released Monday. 
 
 In audio originally broadcast on the BNSF dispatch channel, an Amtrak conductor calls for help following the derailment from bridge onto Interstate 5 near Olympia. (Audio Provided by Broadcastify) 
 
 Connect with loved ones Amtrak is telling people who need information about their friends or family who might have been on the train to call 1-800-523-9101. 
 
 An Amtrak conductor can be heard describing the derailment and requesting help on audio of the BNSF dispatch channel. 
 
 “Emergency, emergency, emergency,” the conductor can be heard saying. “We are on the ground.” 
 
 Some travelers who encountered the grisly scene rushed to help the wounded. 
 
 “We were very close to the trains, and it was a chaotic scene, but a scene of complete purpose,” said Dr. Nathan Selden, a Portland neurosurgeon who tended to victims. “Everybody knew what the goal was.” 
 
 Quick deceleration 
 
 Amtrak Cascades Train 501 — among a fleet of high-speed passenger trains that travel daily between British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon — departed Seattle for Portland about 6 a.m. The train stopped at the new passenger station in Freighthouse Square, near the Tacoma Dome, before heading south on the newly opened Point Defiance Bypass Route. 
 
 The train was next heading into a curve with a posted 30 mph limit just southwest of the Eagles Pride Golf Course between Lakewood and Olympia near the Nisqually River delta. Moments before the wreck, speeds were gauged at about 81 mph, according to transitdocs.com, a website that maps Amtrak train locations and speeds using data from the railroad’s train tracker app. 
 
 The maximum allowed speed along the newly rebuilt stretch of track is 79 mph, according to Sound Transit, the regional transit authority that owns and maintains the line. But the route also includes “a number of areas where the speeds are limited below that maximum,” according to a statement issued by Sound Transit on Monday afternoon. 
 
 Speed signs are posted and engineers are trained to slow according to the posted speeds, the transit agency added. 
 
 In the stretch of track where the train derailed, an engineer faces the challenge of decelerating over a short distance, when approaching the curve and bypass, said John Hiatt, a longtime private investigator in train-safety disputes. 
 
 “A downward grade coming into that curve, you’ve got that working against you. You’ve got to make a pretty good estimate of how to get that down from 81 to 30,” Hiatt said of the track, located near Mounts Road outside of DuPont. “From what I’ve heard, there were several complaints by engineers about this.” 
 
 Bob Chipkevich, a former National Transportation Safety Board director of railroad, pipeline and hazardous-materials investigations, said the wreck appeared to be a high-speed derailment based on the television images he’d seen of the accident Monday. 
 
 “Like an automobile, the faster you are going the more violent it can be when you leave the track; cars are strewn farther from the track and more cars are derailed,” said Chipkevich. 
 
 Karnes added Monday that he did not feel the train slow down before reaching the curve, though he wasn’t paying close attention. 
 
 Amtrak officials said Monday the automatic speed-limiting technology known as “positive train control” wasn’t in operation at the time of Train 501’s derailment. 
 
 The retrofit of the newly opened line included safety systems that can prevent excessively dangerous speeds; the 14.5-mile corridor is now equipped for positive train control, but the train controls aren’t yet operating in that area, said Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson, and an Amtrak spokesman said the equipment was still being tested. 
 
 Federal safety officials have been pushing for the implementation of those control systems for years, including in 1993 after a head-on crash between freight trains killed five crewmen in Kelso. Congress ordered in 2008 that they be in use by the end of 2015, but the mandate on train controls has been delayed until the end of 2018. Lawmakers have also left open the possibility of another delay until 2020. 
 
 Since then, other fatal accidents have occurred on passenger trains without the control system installed. That includes a 2013 commuter-train crash in the Bronx that killed four and a 2015 Amtrak crash in Philadelphia, when a train traveling more than twice the speed limit went off the tracks, killing eight people. 
 
 Deborah Hersman, a former NTSB chairwoman who now leads the Chicago-based National Safety Council, said the speed-limiting technology is already in use in European and Asian countries with high-speed rail systems. 
 
 “People have this technology in their phones,” she said. “A Pokémon app can tell you’re driving, and disable the app.” 
 
 Locomotive data recorder 
 
 The NTSB said it will assess the train’s speed as part of an investigation the agency launched Monday. The Washington State Department of Transportation said it didn’t know what caused the derailment, said Janet Matkin, spokeswoman for the WSDOT’s rail division. 
 
 A critical piece of evidence is the data recorder in the locomotive that will show the operating speed before the derailment, if the engineer was applying the brakes and if the train was decelerating, Chipkevich said. 
 
 A crew of NTSB specialists will be on the scene looking at different aspects of the derailment. A track specialist will review design, maintenance and construction records as well as inspect the rails to determine when the cars left the track. 
 
 An NTSB team was scheduled to arrive in Seattle late Monday, said NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss. The team of 15 or 20 people will include personnel from NTSB’s family-assistance, rail, media-relations and human-performance programs, Weiss said. NTSB board member Bella Dinh-Zarr also will be on the team. 
 
 The southbound lanes of Interstate 5 remained blocked by the wreckage and responding personnel throughout Monday. That stretch of I-5 south near the accident site likely will stay closed through Tuesday morning while state and federal investigators assess the scene. 
 
 Monday’s wreck was the second Cascades derailment this year. In July, a train ran a stop signal and was deflected into gravel near Chambers Bay along Puget Sound, causing some minor injuries. 
 
 Rerouted passenger trains 
 
 The train that jumped the track Monday was the first to travel the Point Defiance Bypass, a rebuilt rail line previously used for occasional freight and military transport. The route had been opened Monday specifically for the Amtrak Cascades fleet — the passenger-train service jointly owned by WSDOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation. Amtrak operates the service for the two states as a contractor, and is responsible for day-to-day operations. 
 
 The new Sound Transit-owned bypass rerouted passenger trains inland from a more scenic, waterfront route around Tacoma’s Point Defiance. The route aimed to shave 10 minutes off the typical 3 1/2-hour trip between Portland and Seattle, with Monday’s route opening culminating a three-year, $181 million rail project funded by federal stimulus money. 
 
 State transportation officials in recent months had hailed the new route as a watershed for regional passenger rail travel that would provide two additional daily trips between Seattle and Portland. 
 
 But some local government officials feared the higher-speed trains traveling a new inland route posed potential dangers, particularly where the track crossed roadways. 
 
 As the opening of the new route neared, several agencies engaged in a public-awareness campaign about train safety. Amtrak posted an online public-service message featuring Seattle Seahawks wide-receiver Doug Baldwin. Joint Base Lewis-McChord also tweeted out a warning last week that noted “trains traveling about 80 miles per hour begin running on the tracks along the JBLM I-5 corridor on Dec. 18.” 
 
 “Never stop on the tracks,” the tweet added. 
 
 Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency early Monday and rushed to the incident command post quickly established near the accident site. 
 
 President Donald Trump tweeted that the derailment “shows more than ever” why his soon-to-be-released infrastructure plan should be adopted. He also tweeted that his “thoughts and prayers” and “deepest sympathies” were with everyone involved and thanked first responders. 
 
 It was unclear whether Trump was aware that the stretch of railway where the accident occurred had recently been rebuilt. 
 
 The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2017 
 
 Eagerly anticipated 
 
 Witnesses and survivors of Monday’s derailment recounted a morning that for many had been an eagerly anticipated event before tragedy struck. 
 
 Anthony Raimondi, of Gig Harbor, a former Amtrak employee, was near the front of the train when he felt the car lean and everything went dark. 
 
 After the wreck, another man in the same car punched open a window and the two of them helped each other climb out the window and down off the train, he said. 
 
 “I got out and I’m very lucky except for a little bump on my leg,” he said. 
 
 Antony Raimondi of Gig Harbor was riding the inaugural Amtrak train No. 501 for fun this morning when it derailed from bridge onto Interstate 5 near Olympia. (Ramon Dompor / The Seattle Times) 
 
 Karnes, a transit advocate from Tacoma, said he was on the train to Portland to do some Christmas shopping with his boyfriend. 
 
 “Our new Amtrak station was opening up in Tacoma, so I wanted to be on the first train out,” he said. 
 
 The train seemed to be traveling normally when Karnes said he heard a creaking sound and felt the train rock slightly. Then, suddenly, his body launched into the seat in front of his. 
 
 After the car Karnes was in “careened off an embankment,” he and other passengers had to kick out a window and jump into some bushes onto an embankment that led down to Interstate 5, he said. 
 
 One man was lying on the ground on the embankment, Karnes said. “It looked like he might have been thrown from the train.” 
 
 Emma Shafer, a 20-year-old student at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts, was on the train heading to Vancouver, Wash., for her winter break when the train derailed. 
 
 There were about 12 people in her car, including a family, and they all banded together “as time went on” during the trip, she said. 
 
 Shafer said she was able to escape the car by climbing over seats to get around pieces of the train that were blocking the way out. While exiting, she said she saw someone pinned under the train and severely hurt. 
 
 The family made it out, she said. She suffered minor injuries, a hurt ear and elbow. 
 
 “It was really disorientating,” Shafer said. “I felt dizzy and a little bit sick.” 
 
 Maria Hetland said she was driving to work on northbound Interstate 5 when traffic suddenly slowed. She rolled down her window and saw the train. “It was awful,” she said. 
 
 One train car was beneath the bridge sitting parallel to the roadway, Hetland said. Another dangled from a rail bridge that crosses I-5. The injured were everywhere. 
 
 Multiple Pierce and Thurston County residents gave blood to help survivors. Optum Pierce Behavioral Health Organization, Pierce County’s mental-health provider, set up a free emotional support line for those affected by the crash at 866-342-6892, and Alaska Airlines announced it would reduce airfares between Seattle and Portland in response to the fatal wreck. 
 
 Correction: A previous version of this story reported, citing The Associated Press, that at least six people were killed in the derailment. Authorities later confirmed at least three people were killed, though victims remain in the hospital. 
 
 This report includes reporting from staff writers Mike Baker, Jim Brunner, Evan Bush, Christine Clarridge, Sara Jean Green, Hal Bernton, David Gutman, Jessica Lee, Mike Lindblom, Lewis Kamb, Joseph O’Sullivan, Steve Miletich and Christine Willmsen, and staff researcher Miyoko Wolf. ||||| TACOMA, Wash. -- An Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a faster new route hurtled off an overpass south of Seattle on Monday and spilled some of its cars onto the highway below, killing three people, injuring more than 100 and crushing two vehicles, authorities said. 
 
 Attention quickly turned to the train's speed. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety said late Monday night, preliminary reports from the data recorder in the rear locomotive show the train was going 80 miles per hour on a 30 mile per hour track. The NTSB said they will investigate why the train was traveling at that speed and other factors that may have led up to the crash. 
 
 WATCH: NTSB gives update on Amtrak derailment: 
 
 The NTSB also said crash prevention technology, known as Positive Train Control (PTC), was also not activated, 
 
 80 passengers, five crew members and one technician were aboard when the train derailed about 40 miles south of Seattle just after 7:30 a.m., Amtrak said. 
 
 
 
 The State Patrol said Monday night 72 people were taken to area hospitals, of those 10 patients were in serious condition and one of those patients was airlifted to Harboview Medical Center. 
 
 "This is a tragic event. On behalf of everyone at Amtrak, I want to express that we are deeply saddened by what happened here today," Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told reporters near the crash site Monday night. "The NTSB will carry out an investigation and we’ll wait for their findings." 
 
 WATCH: State Patrol, WSDOT and Amtrak give update on trail derailment: 
 
 An official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that preliminary signs indicate that Train 501 may have struck something before going off the track about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Seattle. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. 
 
 
 
 The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said five passenger vehicles and two semi trucks on Interstate 5 were struck by falling train cars and multiple motorists were injured. No fatalities of motorists were reported. 
 
 
 
 In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, the conductor can be heard saying the train was coming around a corner and was crossing a bridge that passed over Interstate 5 when it derailed. 
 
 
 
 "Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! We are on the ground!" a radio message from the train came into dispatchers, according audio obtained by Broadcastify.com. "We are on the bridge over I-5 near Nisqually... on the freeway. Need EMS [emergency services] ASAP. Looks like they are already starting to show up." 
 
 
 
 MORE | Radio Traffic From Amtrak Train 
 
 Dispatch audio also indicated that the engineer survived with bleeding from the head and both eyes swollen shut. 
 
 
 
 "I'm still figuring that out. We've got cars everywhere and down onto the highway," he tells the dispatcher, who asks if everyone is OK. 
 
 
 
 Trooper Brooke Bova with the Washington State Patrol says the train had 12 passenger cars and two engines, and all but one engine derailed. Five vehicles and two semi trucks were struck by the falling train cars on I-5 causing injuries, but no fatalities on the freeway. The extent of the injuires to those on the freeway is not known. 
 
 She said there were three fatalities. The Associated Press had earlier reported six dead, but Bova said there were three. Bova and Jay Sumerlin, a battalion chief with West Pierce Fire & Rescue, said all of the train cars have been searched. There were worries that more bodies would be found in the cars. 
 
 The train was going more than 80 mph about one-quarter mile before it entered a curve where the speed limit was much lower. A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 79 mph to 30 mph for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5. 
 
 
 
 The chart, dated February 7, 2017, was submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration in anticipation of the start of passenger service along a new bypass route that shaves 10 minutes off the trip between Seattle and Portland. 
 
 It was not clear how fast the train was moving at the precise moment when it derailed. 
 
 Kimberley Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, confirmed to the AP that the speed limit at the point where the train derailed is 30 mph. Speed signs are posted two miles before the speed zone and just before the speed zone approaching the curve, she said. 
 
 "There were people screaming" 
 
 Chris Karnes was on the train, three or four cars back from the front. 
 
 
 
 "We had just passed the city of DuPont and maybe two or three minutes after that and we felt a little bit of wobbling and then the next thing that we knew we were being catapulted into the seats in front of us and we could hear the train derailing and metal crunching," Chris Karns told KOMO NewsRadio. "There were people screaming -- everything was dark. We had to kick out the window in order to get off the train." 
 
 Aleksander Kristiansen, a 24-year-old exchange student at the University of Washington from Copenhagen, was going to Portland to visit the city for the day. 
 
 "I was just coming out of the bathroom when the accident happened. My car just started shaking really, really badly. Things were falling off the shelf. Right away, you knew that this was not something minor," he said. 
 
 The back of his train car was wide open because it had separated from the rest of the train, so he and others were able to jump out to safety. He was at about the middle of the train, either the sixth or seventh car, he said, and was "one of the lucky ones." 
 
 Emma Schafer was headed home to Vancouver, Washington, on winter break from the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and was napping when the crash occurred. 
 
 She awoke to find her body at a 45-degree angle and her train car dangling from the overpass. Someone behind her was pinned by the legs, she said, and she and others who could walk exited the train by crawling onto a car underneath theirs that had been crushed. 
 
 "It felt oddly silent after the actual crashing. There was a lot of metal, a lot of screeching, a lot of being thrown around. It was very quiet. Then there was people screaming," Schafer said. 
 
 "I don't know if I actually heard the sirens, but they were there. A guy was like, 'Hey, I'm Robert. We'll get you out of here.'" 
 
 Daniella Fenelon, a 19-year-old from Southern California, was on the train taking a cross-country trip as part of her winter break. She said she was asleep when the accident happened. 
 
 "Suddenly there was just a jolt, and I didn't know what was happening," Fenelon said. She slammed into the seat area in front of her, and the windows exploded, said Fenelon, who was treated and released from a hospital with a possible concussion. 
 
 Four hospitals say 50 patients were taken to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties, said Cary Evans, communications and government affairs director of CHI Franciscan Health. Twenty of those patients went to Madigan Army Medical Center where nine were in serious condition, according to a hospital spokesperson. The other 11 patients were in fair and stable condition. At other hospitals, 14 were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, 5 patients to Allenmore, 3 patients to Tacoma General, 10 patients to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia. It is not immediately known where the others were taken. Of that other group, at least two people are in critical condition and 11 others are seriously injured. 
 
 
 
 Medical tents were set up in the highway median just south of DuPont. 
 
 
 
 The only car that is on the tracks is the rear locomotive," Karnes told the Associated Press. "There are several cars that are hanging over the overpass." 
 
 Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a State of Emergency for the disaster and has activated the State Emergency Operations Center. 
 
 DuPont Mayor Michael P. Courts also declared a state of emergency in that city. 
 
 
 
 In a conference call with reporters, Amtrak President and Co-CEO Richard Anderson said “Positive Train Control” was not activated on the tracks at the time of the derailment. Positive Train Control is a technology that automatically slows down, and eventually stops, a train if it senses the train is going too fast and could derail or get in an accident. 
 
 
 
 'Prepared for the Worst and Hoped for the Best' 
 
 Motorists said they drove up to find a train car hanging off the bridge, and dozens of Amtrak passengers stranding along the freeway. Motorists on both sides of the freeway began to help them. 
 
 
 
 Dr. Nathan Selden, a neurosurgeon at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, said he and his son drove through the accident scene while traveling north to visit Seattle. The doctor asked if he could help and was ushered to a medical triage tent in the highway median. 
 
 The most seriously injured had already been whisked away, but the patients he helped appeared to have open head wounds and skull, pelvic or leg fractures, as well as small cuts and neck sprains, he said. 
 
 He called it a miracle that an infant child he saw from the scene appeared completely unharmed. 
 
 Daniel Konzelman, 24, was driving parallel to the train on his way to work as an accountant in Olympia. He was about 30 seconds ahead of the train on the freeway when he saw it derail. 
 
 Konzelman, who was driving with his girlfriend, parked his car and grabbed some boots and a headlamp 
 
 He said he climbed a tree that had fallen and stepped into a train car through a window. There was broken glass everywhere. 
 
 "So the trains -- a lot were tipped over on the side and some of them, the roofs had rippped or collapsed, he said. "First two were fine, We just walked in ." 
 
 Then he and his girlfriend entered a train car with a collapsed wall. "So we had to belly-crawl through," he said. 
 
 "It's dark. It's eery," he said. "It sort of felt like war. What I imagine that to be like." 
 
 He said they tried to comfort people and keep them calm. Some couldn't move because of their injuries or were pinned under wreckage. 
 
 "I just wanted to help people because I would want people to help me," Konzelman told The Associated Press. "I'm an Eagle Scout. I have a lot of first-aid training and emergency response training." 
 
 
 
 He and his girlfriend stayed for nearly two hours before hitting the road again. 
 
 "I prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. I saw a little bit of both," he said. 
 
 Southbound I-5 To Remain Closed For Extended Period 
 
 All southbound lanes of Interstate 5 are closed south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord and are expected to remain closed at least through the morning commute on Tuesday, according to the WSDOT. Troopers have set up a number of detours, including one allowing drivers to cut through Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The northbound lanes are expected to remain open, officials said near the crash site Monday night. 
 
 "I wish I could give everybody a firm time on when we’re gonna have this open, but there’s too many variables. We gotta check the safety of that overpass, we gotta check the safety of I-5, and we have to make sure our first responders at scene are safe," said Captain Dan Hall, Washington State Patrol. 
 
 "We have a detour that’s going through Center Drive through the base," Trooper Bova said. "JBLM is being amazing and they’re really helping us get traffic through there but please expect congestion through that area. That is one of our biggest detours." 
 
 
 
 Other detours take drivers around into Kitsap County or far into eastern Pierce and Thurston County. 
 
 Alaska Airlines has also announced it will lower fares on flights between Seattle and Portland on Monday and Tuesday. 
 
 In a statement, Amtrak said the train that derailed was Train 501, offering service from Seattle to Portland. 
 
 
 
 The train was making the inaugural run on the new route as part of a $180.7 million project designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound that's bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic. It left Seattle around 6 a.m., according to an Amtrak schedule, and was due in Portland about 3 1/2 hours later. 
 
 The train was going 81.1 mph moments before the derailment, according to transitdocs.com, a website that maps Amtrak train locations and speeds using data from the railroad's train tracker app. 
 
 The maximum speed along the stretch of track, known as Point Defiance Bypass, is 79 mph, according to information about the project posted online by the Washington State Department of Transportation. However, officials with Sound Transit, who own the tracks, say the speed limit in the curve is 30 mph. They would not speculate on the speed of the train at the time of the crash, deferring to official agencies investigating the crash. 
 
 President Trump Responds 
 
 President Donald Trump used the deadly train derailmen to call for a boost to infrastructure spending. 
 
 In a tweet sent about three hours after the crash that authorities said killed at least six Monday, Trump says it shows "more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly." 
 
 Trump adds: "Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!" 
 
 
 
 About 10 minutes later, he offerered his condolences for those involved in the tragedy: 
 
 "My thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in the train accident in DuPont, Washington. Thank you to all of our wonderful First Responders who are on the scene. We are currently monitoring here at the White House." 
 
 Family Resource Information 
 
 
 
 Amtrak has established a toll-free number, 1-800-523-9101 for family and friends to call for information about loved ones aboard the train. 
 
 KOMO News at STAR 101.5 are holding a blood drive through Bloodworks Northwest to help the victims of the train crash. Donors can stop by the bloodmobile outside KOMO Plaza from 8:00 a.m. tp 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 19. To Schedule an appointment, CLICK HERE. 
 
 This is a developing news story. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
– The Amtrak train that derailed in Washington state Monday morning, killing at least three people, was speeding, officials say, and not by a trivial amount: The train was going 80mph in a zone where the limit was 30mph when it came off the tracks on an overpass between Tacoma and Olympia, spilling cars onto Interstate 5, National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Monday night. She said it was "too early to tell" why the train, which was making its first run on a new route, was going so fast, the AP reports. Washington state transportation department spokeswoman Barbara LaBoe says the train was supposed to slow down dramatically as it entered the curve, and speed-limit warnings were posted two miles ahead of the zone as well as just before it, reports the Seattle Times. Amtrak President Richard Anderson says positive train control, a system that can slow down speeding trains, was not in use on the stretch of track where the accident occurred. More than 70 people were injured in the crash, at least 10 of them seriously, authorities say. It's not clear yet whether the three people killed were motorists or people from the train, which carried 80 passengers, five crew members, and a technician, the Oregonian reports. State police say 19 uninjured people from the train were reunited with their families. President Trump tweeted that the accident showed why his infrastructure plan "must be approved quickly," though the New York Times notes that the accident happened on brand new tracks that were part of a state-funded infrastructure investment program.