How Safe Is Amtrak? Train Carrying 267 Passengers Derails Near Chambers Bay In Washington

An Amtrak train carrying 267 passengers derailed Sunday near the Chambers Bay golf course in Pierce County, in Washington D.C. No casualties were reported, however, some people suffered minor injuries, according to Amtrak. None of the crew members were injured.

At the time of the incident, the train was heading to Seattle, CNN-affiliate KEPR reported. The cause of the derailment is still under investigation.

Read: 5 Key Findings From NTSB Meeting On Deadly 2015 Amtrak Philadelphia Derailment

This is not the first time the passengers in an Amtrak train have met with an accident. In 2015, at least seven people were killed and over 200 were injured after a train — carrying 238 passengers and five crew members — derailed and rolled onto its side in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. Seven cars of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188, which was heading to New York, came off tracks. The incident required a 4-alarm response, reports said. Over 100 firefighters and 200 police officers were deployed at the site to handle the mishap.

The National Transportation Safety Board met in May 2016 to present its finding on the cause of the 2015 Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. The NTSB investigation suggested the engineer who was driving the train was "distracted by radio transmissions," media reports said citing unnamed federal officials briefed on the matter. It also found the train was going twice the speed limit.

After the mishap, the Federal Railroad Administration ordered Amtrak to broaden its use of an existing signal technology designed to prevent such an incident. Reports said Amtrak would change an existing automatic braking system to guard against speeding trains at the curving section of track.

This year, there were two more derailments in March and April at Pennsylvania Station in New York. The derailments were caused by track defects, the New York Times reported citing Amtrak officials. The incident made officials concerned about the aging infrastructure at North America’s busiest train station.

The April derailment was reportedly caused by weakening timber ties beneath the tracks that caused rails to widen and the wheels of the affected cars to derail. The incident in March took place due to mismatch between two pieces of rail that connected together at a curve, officials said.

The derailments in March and April also had federal officials worried over these incidents. “While safety is our No. 1 priority, we also want to prevent service disruptions similar to those that recently occurred at the station due to train derailments, which impact commuters along the busiest passenger rail corridors in the nation,” said Marc Willis, a spokesman for the railroad administration, according to the Times.

Regular commuters, who rely on train service at Penn Station, said they were concerned over safety issues of the Amtrak. “Our members are alarmed that Amtrak’s past lack of resources has created a situation where we cannot be entirely confident in the quality of Amtrak infrastructure that is shared by the L.I.R.R.,” said Mark Epstein, chair of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council, a riders’ group.

Read: Will Amtrak Car Contracts Be Missed As Result Of USA Made Requirements Following Recession?

Despite the mishaps, data collected by the Federal Railroad Administration in 2015 suggested rail derailments were on a decline. "Train is probably the safest mode of transportation we have in America," Rick Campbell, President, Fort Worth, Texas-based CTC, Inc., which specializes in railroad crossing safety and technology, was quoted as saying in a Fortune report.