Nodaway, Iowa — A federal investigator said Monday he suspects fractured track caused the Amtrak crash that killed one person and injured 96 others.
The train was traveling from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., with 241 passengers and 16 crew members aboard when passengers were slammed into the sides of their cars shortly before midnight Saturday.
"At this point, the prime suspect is the track," said John Goglia, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. "Right now it doesn't appear to be any part of human error of anyone on the train."
The Washington Post, citing unidentified sources close to the investigation, reported in today's editions that the train derailed where a rail defect had been recently detected and a temporary patch installed.
A NTSB spokesman could not be reached to comment on the Post report.
Federal investigators wound up their second day of inspections at the site in southwest Iowa late Monday and said their work at the scene would be done today.
Goglia said metallurgists would test sections of the track and that it usually takes at least nine months for the board to complete its laboratory work and reach a conclusion.
Goglia said the railroad that owns the track, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, had far exceeded government inspection requirements.
He said the government requires sonar inspections twice a year and that the railroad inspected the track at least monthly. Visual inspections are required twice a week but the railroad inspected every day, Goglia said.
Bob Jansen, a roadmaster for the railroad, said Monday the stretch where the train derailed had been visually inspected Saturday morning. The line was reopened to train traffic early Monday, Jansen said.
The California Zephyr's engineer told investigators he was operating the train at 52 mph, well below the posted limit of 79 mph, on a straight stretch of track when he felt a tug.
Goglia said inspectors had interviewed the crew of a coal train that had traveled the same section of track 57 minutes earlier and that they reported no problems with signals or the tracks.
Investigators found shattered rails amid 3,000 feet of torn-up roadbed and twisted silver passenger cars. Federal crash investigator Ted Turpin on Sunday said investigators hadn't determined if the steel fractured before or during the derailment.
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