The accident happened on a new route for the Amtrak train that runs between Seattle and Portland. The very first day of its use! And the train derailed over I-5 the major north-south interstate connecting all of the West Coast from British Columbia down to California. There are deaths being reported.
I know that Amtrak had done due diligence in planning for accidents, so it is an example of how preparations are critical when you start operating in a new manner, and in this case on a different track system. I'm pretty sure this is BNSF track that Amtrak runs on. The new run was taking passenger trains off a very busy freight route and de-conflicting passenger traffic with the freight traffic.
What we know at this point is that something went tragically wrong. You would think that the track had been inspected very carefully and there had been some practice runs. It is too early to point the finger at any one thing — but operator error is always a potential with rail accidents. And, for most accidents that happen, there can be multiple issues all coming together at the wrong time to cause the accident.
