Amtrak Acela Cars Come Undone at High Speed
No one was hurt in the latest bout of trouble for the passenger railway service.
The connection between two passenger cars came undone Tuesday on a high-speed Acela Express train traveling from Washington, D.C. to Boston, prompting the evacuation of 52 passengers near Havre de Grace, Md.
There were no injuries to customers or crew, a spokesperson for Amtrak told The Drive in an email. The incident at 6:40 a.m. EST involved a "mechanical issue," the passenger rail service spokesperson added.
Amtrak said it was investigating the cause of the car separating and is inspecting all Acela trains to prevent a reoccurrence.
Amtrak has recorded three fatal accidents since December, when a train derailment killed three people and injured dozens of others near Tacoma, Washington. More recently, one person died and six were injured, when an Amtrak train carrying Republican lawmakers to a retreat in West Virginia hit a truck on Jan. 31.
The rail service last month tapped aviation industry veteran Ken Hylander to be its chief safety officer, a newly created position.
Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board cited a failing safety culture at Amtrak after investigating an accident that killed two track workers in Pennsylvania in 2016.
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