Inquiry asks why train in Amtrak crash was speeding

Washington

THE investigation into the fatal Amtrak crash near Tacoma, Washington, is focusing on the possibility that the engineer was distracted by a cellphone, another person in his cab, or something else when the train barrelled into a curve 50 mph over the posted speed limit.

The crew did not activate the emergency brake before the derailment near Tacoma on Monday morning, said Bella Dinh-Zarr, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official overseeing the investigation, which might indicate that the engineer failed to perceive the danger.

At a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, she said the badly damaged cameras in the engineer's cab - one facing forward, and the other inward, toward the person driving the train - had been sent to the safety board's laboratory in Wash…