DUPONT, Wash. (KOIN) — Officials opened all lanes on Interstate-5 at the site of Monday’s fatal Amtrak derailment.
Crews spent majority of Wednesday removing wrecking from the deadly Amtrak derailment that has closed a portion of I-5 since Monday morning. While WSDOT is reopening lanes, the speed limit will be 45 miles per hour for safety reasons.
A locomotive was removed and reached its destination early Wednesday afternoon — which reopened Steilacoom-DuPont Road and exit 119.
However, at a press conference, officials said they found more debris at the scene than they originally expected. Despite the mess, crews said the concrete appeared to have held up fairly well. The shoulder of the road seemed to be more impacted, which will be easier to fix since it’s made up of asphalt.
Also on Wednesday, authorities released the identity of the 3rd victim. Benjamin Gran, of Auburn, Washington, died of multiple traumatic injuries in the train accident.
Officials say Gran, 40, had been ordered to a lifetime of supervised release following a felony conviction for child pornography. He served two years in prison and was released in 2015.
Federal investigators probing a deadly Amtrak derailment are trying to determine why the train was traveling at more than double the posted speed limit as it entered the curve where it left the tracks and plunged off an overpass and partly onto a freeway, killing three people and injuring dozens.
National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Tuesday that early details from the probe indicate a conductor-in-training was in the cab with the engineer at the time of the derailment and the brake that eventually stopped the train was automatically activated instead of being applied by the engineer.
Technology that can automatically slow a speeding train was not in use on that stretch of track. Track sensors and other components were installed, but the system isn’t expected to be completed until spring.The Associated Press contributed to this report