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NTSB Investigation of Amtrak Wreck Continues

Aired July 30, 2002 - 14:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: NTSB officials are picking through the twisted wreckage of an Amtrak train outside Washington today in search of the cause of this accident. The train derailed yesterday, injuring more than 100 passengers, six of them critically.
CNN's Patty Davis joins us now from the scene with the latest from there -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Amtrak is getting ready to roll away six of the uprighted passenger cars to Washington, D.C. That's what Amtrak says. After that, they will be taken away to be repaired. CSX, meanwhile, which owns this stretch of track, says that it is busy now laying down new track, and it hopes to get this stretch opened soon. No timetable on that. The NTSB is hard at work here. It is looking at the tracks, the signals. They have determined the train was going 60 miles an hour, well below the 70 mile an hour speed limit, and that the controls were in a normal position. They will bring us up-to-date in about an hour and a half. We are hoping to hear more about one factor which is possibly the heat. Now, the heat -- a heat kink, or a sun kink as it is called, could have taken place on that track and thrown those cars around. The NTSB looking at that as one possible factor.

One hundred injured out of 161 on board plus crew. Amtrak is saying that 14 now are still hospitalized -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Patty, you mentioned CSX. Of course, it is the company in charge of inspecting those tracks. Are they talking about that? Have they told you the last time they did inspect the tracks in that area?

DAVIS: Yes. I called CSX. In fact, CSX said that it did inspect these tracks less than 24 hours before this crash. Also, Amtrak saying that this particular train, which was from Chicago to Washington, D.C. was inspected before it left Chicago. Both were found to be in normal operating condition -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Patty Davis, thank you.

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