Feds looking into whether Washington Amtrak crash caused by distracted engineer

Federal investigators are now looking into whether the Amtrak engineer whose train plunged off an overpass and killed at least three people in Dupont, Washington, was distracted by an employee-in-training next to him in the train, an unnamed federal official told AP on Tuesday. Investigators also want to know whether the engineer lost “situational awareness” due to the second person. The train was traveling at 80mph in a 30-mph zone on Monday morning, when it flew off the rails along a curve, sending some of the train's cars onto an interstate highway below the railway. Bella Dinh-Zarr, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said on Monday that it is too early to say why it was going 50mph over the speed limit. Dinh-Zaar stated that investigators will talk to the engineer and other crew members as they attempt to figure out what went wrong. (AP)