Patrick Mcmahon
CNN has obtained a short audio exchange between the engineer of the Amtrak train that crashed Monday morning and a dispatcher.
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Photos from scene of amtrak passenger train derailment pic.twitter.com/gd09MzLCC6
— Pierce Co Sheriff (@PierceSheriff) December 18, 2017
RELATED: Early images of the major Amtrak derailment in Washington this morning do not look good
The train went off the rails at a bridge over highway I-5 near Dupont, Washington. At the time of the wreck, 70 to 75 people were aboard the train, according to the Pierce County Sheriff. There are several confirmed fatalities so far; that number could rise.
While the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, there is no cause for the derailment at this time. Audio first released by CNN captures the chaos of the accident, which seems to have happened so fast that not even the train crew was prepared.
Here’s part of the emergency radio transmissions between the two:
Crew of the train: ‘Amtrak 501 emergency, emergency, emergency… we are on the ground (inaudible) We are on the bridge (inaudible) …on the freeway.’
‘We need EMS ASAP. Looks like they are already starting to show up.
Dispatcher: ‘Hey guys what happened?’
Crew of the train: ‘We were coming round the corner to take the bridge on the I5 and right there on the Nissqually we were on the ground.’
Dispatcher: ‘Are you… is everybody okay?’
Crew of the train: ‘I am still figuring that out… we’ve got cars everywhere and down onto the highway.’
The National Content Desk contributed to this report.
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