“The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly,” the President Donald Trump wrote online. | Saul Loeb/AFP Photo Trump pushes infrastructure plan after deadly Amtrak crash

President Donald Trump on Monday immediately seized on a deadly train derailment in Washington state to stump for his long-promised package of infrastructure investments — but it’s not immediately clear his plan would have prevented the crash.

Local news coverage noted that the crash near the state capital Olympia, which killed at least three people, occurred on a recently upgraded stretch of track that Amtrak was using for the first time Monday as part of an effort to speed up trains and avoid freight traffic. The project totaled $181 million.


The train, traveling at more than 80 mph, may have struck something before derailing on a bridge over Interstate 5, sending trains hurtling onto the highway, The Associated Press reported. It cited an unnamed official who had been briefed on the investigation.

But Trump wasted little time connecting Monday’s accident to the $1 trillion infrastructure plan that the White House plans to roll out in January, a package that Democrats are already criticizing for offering relatively little new federal spending for ailing roads, railroads, highways, bridges and tunnels. The plan will call for as much as $200 billion in new federal spending during the coming decade, with the rest coming from sources like state and local taxes, tolls, fees, and private investments.

The money could be split among varied needs, such as rural broadband and upgrades to veterans hospitals.

“The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly,” the president tweeted Monday. “Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!”

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Minutes later, in a speech outlining his new national security strategy, Trump called the crash “all the more reason why we must start immediately fixing the infrastructure of the United States.” He also expressed “our deepest sympathies and most heartfelt prayers for the victims.”

About 78 passengers and five crew members were on board at the time of Monday's crash, Amtrak said. The AP said the injured included motorists on I-5 who were struck by falling train cars.

"The train was making the inaugural run on the new route as part of a $180.7 million project designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound that’s bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic," the AP added. It said the bypass had been built on an existing inland rail line.

The Washington state Department of Transportation, which had received federal grants for the track upgrades, said in a statement that the local operator Sound Transit had managed the work and that the Federal Railroad Administration had reviewed it.

"Today was the first day of public use of the tracks, after weeks of inspection and testing," the state DOT said.

The derailment occurred barely a month after the National Transportation Safety Board criticized Amtrak for fostering a "deficient" safety culture stemming partially from a bad relationship with its unions, which the board cited as one factor in an April 2016 accident in Chester, Pa., that killed two roadway workers and injured 39 passengers. NTSB investigators discovered "a culture of fear, on one hand, and normalization of deviance from rules on the other," Chairman Robert Sumwalt said in November.

Other fatal Amtrak crashes have included a 2015 derailment in Philadelphia that killed eight people, a disaster that investigators ultimately blamed on a distracted driver who far exceeded the safe speed limit. Poor signaling equipment, collisions with debris or other vehicles, or engineers’ medical problems can also cause train accidents.

Railroads and Congress have also traded blame for the slow adoption of a crash-preventing speed control technology that lawmakers had initially mandated for rail lines in a 2008 law. Congress postponed the 2015 deadline three years ago, giving the railroads until the end of 2018 after they said they needed more time.

It's not yet clear whether the technology, called positive train control, would have prevented Monday's accident. Amtrak officials said the technology was not active on the rail line.

Lauren Gardner contributed to this report.