TACOMA, Wash. -- An Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a faster new route hurtled off an overpass south of Seattle on Monday and spilled some of its cars onto the highway below, killing three people, injuring more than 100 and crushing two vehicles, authorities said. 
 
 Attention quickly turned to the train's speed. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety said late Monday night, preliminary reports from the data recorder in the rear locomotive show the train was going 80 miles per hour on a 30 mile per hour track. The NTSB said they will investigate why the train was traveling at that speed and other factors that may have led up to the crash. 
 
 WATCH: NTSB gives update on Amtrak derailment: 
 
 The NTSB also said crash prevention technology, known as Positive Train Control (PTC), was also not activated, 
 
 80 passengers, five crew members and one technician were aboard when the train derailed about 40 miles south of Seattle just after 7:30 a.m., Amtrak said. 
 
 
 
 The State Patrol said Monday night 72 people were taken to area hospitals, of those 10 patients were in serious condition and one of those patients was airlifted to Harboview Medical Center. 
 
 "This is a tragic event. On behalf of everyone at Amtrak, I want to express that we are deeply saddened by what happened here today," Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told reporters near the crash site Monday night. "The NTSB will carry out an investigation and we’ll wait for their findings." 
 
 WATCH: State Patrol, WSDOT and Amtrak give update on trail derailment: 
 
 An official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that preliminary signs indicate that Train 501 may have struck something before going off the track about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Seattle. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. 
 
 
 
 The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said five passenger vehicles and two semi trucks on Interstate 5 were struck by falling train cars and multiple motorists were injured. No fatalities of motorists were reported. 
 
 
 
 In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, the conductor can be heard saying the train was coming around a corner and was crossing a bridge that passed over Interstate 5 when it derailed. 
 
 
 
 "Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! We are on the ground!" a radio message from the train came into dispatchers, according audio obtained by Broadcastify.com. "We are on the bridge over I-5 near Nisqually... on the freeway. Need EMS [emergency services] ASAP. Looks like they are already starting to show up." 
 
 
 
 MORE | Radio Traffic From Amtrak Train 
 
 Dispatch audio also indicated that the engineer survived with bleeding from the head and both eyes swollen shut. 
 
 
 
 "I'm still figuring that out. We've got cars everywhere and down onto the highway," he tells the dispatcher, who asks if everyone is OK. 
 
 
 
 Trooper Brooke Bova with the Washington State Patrol says the train had 12 passenger cars and two engines, and all but one engine derailed. Five vehicles and two semi trucks were struck by the falling train cars on I-5 causing injuries, but no fatalities on the freeway. The extent of the injuires to those on the freeway is not known. 
 
 She said there were three fatalities. The Associated Press had earlier reported six dead, but Bova said there were three. Bova and Jay Sumerlin, a battalion chief with West Pierce Fire & Rescue, said all of the train cars have been searched. There were worries that more bodies would be found in the cars. 
 
 The train was going more than 80 mph about one-quarter mile before it entered a curve where the speed limit was much lower. A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 79 mph to 30 mph for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5. 
 
 
 
 The chart, dated February 7, 2017, was submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration in anticipation of the start of passenger service along a new bypass route that shaves 10 minutes off the trip between Seattle and Portland. 
 
 It was not clear how fast the train was moving at the precise moment when it derailed. 
 
 Kimberley Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, confirmed to the AP that the speed limit at the point where the train derailed is 30 mph. Speed signs are posted two miles before the speed zone and just before the speed zone approaching the curve, she said. 
 
 "There were people screaming" 
 
 Chris Karnes was on the train, three or four cars back from the front. 
 
 
 
 "We had just passed the city of DuPont and maybe two or three minutes after that and we felt a little bit of wobbling and then the next thing that we knew we were being catapulted into the seats in front of us and we could hear the train derailing and metal crunching," Chris Karns told KOMO NewsRadio. "There were people screaming -- everything was dark. We had to kick out the window in order to get off the train." 
 
 Aleksander Kristiansen, a 24-year-old exchange student at the University of Washington from Copenhagen, was going to Portland to visit the city for the day. 
 
 "I was just coming out of the bathroom when the accident happened. My car just started shaking really, really badly. Things were falling off the shelf. Right away, you knew that this was not something minor," he said. 
 
 The back of his train car was wide open because it had separated from the rest of the train, so he and others were able to jump out to safety. He was at about the middle of the train, either the sixth or seventh car, he said, and was "one of the lucky ones." 
 
 Emma Schafer was headed home to Vancouver, Washington, on winter break from the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and was napping when the crash occurred. 
 
 She awoke to find her body at a 45-degree angle and her train car dangling from the overpass. Someone behind her was pinned by the legs, she said, and she and others who could walk exited the train by crawling onto a car underneath theirs that had been crushed. 
 
 "It felt oddly silent after the actual crashing. There was a lot of metal, a lot of screeching, a lot of being thrown around. It was very quiet. Then there was people screaming," Schafer said. 
 
 "I don't know if I actually heard the sirens, but they were there. A guy was like, 'Hey, I'm Robert. We'll get you out of here.'" 
 
 Daniella Fenelon, a 19-year-old from Southern California, was on the train taking a cross-country trip as part of her winter break. She said she was asleep when the accident happened. 
 
 "Suddenly there was just a jolt, and I didn't know what was happening," Fenelon said. She slammed into the seat area in front of her, and the windows exploded, said Fenelon, who was treated and released from a hospital with a possible concussion. 
 
 Four hospitals say 50 patients were taken to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties, said Cary Evans, communications and government affairs director of CHI Franciscan Health. Twenty of those patients went to Madigan Army Medical Center where nine were in serious condition, according to a hospital spokesperson. The other 11 patients were in fair and stable condition. At other hospitals, 14 were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, 5 patients to Allenmore, 3 patients to Tacoma General, 10 patients to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia. It is not immediately known where the others were taken. Of that other group, at least two people are in critical condition and 11 others are seriously injured. 
 
 
 
 Medical tents were set up in the highway median just south of DuPont. 
 
 
 
 The only car that is on the tracks is the rear locomotive," Karnes told the Associated Press. "There are several cars that are hanging over the overpass." 
 
 Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a State of Emergency for the disaster and has activated the State Emergency Operations Center. 
 
 DuPont Mayor Michael P. Courts also declared a state of emergency in that city. 
 
 
 
 In a conference call with reporters, Amtrak President and Co-CEO Richard Anderson said “Positive Train Control” was not activated on the tracks at the time of the derailment. Positive Train Control is a technology that automatically slows down, and eventually stops, a train if it senses the train is going too fast and could derail or get in an accident. 
 
 
 
 'Prepared for the Worst and Hoped for the Best' 
 
 Motorists said they drove up to find a train car hanging off the bridge, and dozens of Amtrak passengers stranding along the freeway. Motorists on both sides of the freeway began to help them. 
 
 
 
 Dr. Nathan Selden, a neurosurgeon at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, said he and his son drove through the accident scene while traveling north to visit Seattle. The doctor asked if he could help and was ushered to a medical triage tent in the highway median. 
 
 The most seriously injured had already been whisked away, but the patients he helped appeared to have open head wounds and skull, pelvic or leg fractures, as well as small cuts and neck sprains, he said. 
 
 He called it a miracle that an infant child he saw from the scene appeared completely unharmed. 
 
 Daniel Konzelman, 24, was driving parallel to the train on his way to work as an accountant in Olympia. He was about 30 seconds ahead of the train on the freeway when he saw it derail. 
 
 Konzelman, who was driving with his girlfriend, parked his car and grabbed some boots and a headlamp 
 
 He said he climbed a tree that had fallen and stepped into a train car through a window. There was broken glass everywhere. 
 
 "So the trains -- a lot were tipped over on the side and some of them, the roofs had rippped or collapsed, he said. "First two were fine, We just walked in ." 
 
 Then he and his girlfriend entered a train car with a collapsed wall. "So we had to belly-crawl through," he said. 
 
 "It's dark. It's eery," he said. "It sort of felt like war. What I imagine that to be like." 
 
 He said they tried to comfort people and keep them calm. Some couldn't move because of their injuries or were pinned under wreckage. 
 
 "I just wanted to help people because I would want people to help me," Konzelman told The Associated Press. "I'm an Eagle Scout. I have a lot of first-aid training and emergency response training." 
 
 
 
 He and his girlfriend stayed for nearly two hours before hitting the road again. 
 
 "I prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. I saw a little bit of both," he said. 
 
 Southbound I-5 To Remain Closed For Extended Period 
 
 All southbound lanes of Interstate 5 are closed south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord and are expected to remain closed at least through the morning commute on Tuesday, according to the WSDOT. Troopers have set up a number of detours, including one allowing drivers to cut through Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The northbound lanes are expected to remain open, officials said near the crash site Monday night. 
 
 "I wish I could give everybody a firm time on when we’re gonna have this open, but there’s too many variables. We gotta check the safety of that overpass, we gotta check the safety of I-5, and we have to make sure our first responders at scene are safe," said Captain Dan Hall, Washington State Patrol. 
 
 "We have a detour that’s going through Center Drive through the base," Trooper Bova said. "JBLM is being amazing and they’re really helping us get traffic through there but please expect congestion through that area. That is one of our biggest detours." 
 
 
 
 Other detours take drivers around into Kitsap County or far into eastern Pierce and Thurston County. 
 
 Alaska Airlines has also announced it will lower fares on flights between Seattle and Portland on Monday and Tuesday. 
 
 In a statement, Amtrak said the train that derailed was Train 501, offering service from Seattle to Portland. 
 
 
 
 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. It left Seattle around 6 a.m., according to an Amtrak schedule, and was due in Portland about 3 1/2 hours later. 
 
 The train was going 81.1 mph moments before the derailment, according to transitdocs.com, a website that maps Amtrak train locations and speeds using data from the railroad's train tracker app. 
 
 The maximum speed along the stretch of track, known as Point Defiance Bypass, is 79 mph, according to information about the project posted online by the Washington State Department of Transportation. However, officials with Sound Transit, who own the tracks, say the speed limit in the curve is 30 mph. They would not speculate on the speed of the train at the time of the crash, deferring to official agencies investigating the crash. 
 
 President Trump Responds 
 
 President Donald Trump used the deadly train derailmen to call for a boost to infrastructure spending. 
 
 In a tweet sent about three hours after the crash that authorities said killed at least six Monday, Trump says it shows "more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly." 
 
 Trump adds: "Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!" 
 
 
 
 About 10 minutes later, he offerered his condolences for those involved in the tragedy: 
 
 "My thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in the train accident in DuPont, Washington. Thank you to all of our wonderful First Responders who are on the scene. We are currently monitoring here at the White House." 
 
 Family Resource Information 
 
 
 
 Amtrak has established a toll-free number, 1-800-523-9101 for family and friends to call for information about loved ones aboard the train. 
 
 KOMO News at STAR 101.5 are holding a blood drive through Bloodworks Northwest to help the victims of the train crash. Donors can stop by the bloodmobile outside KOMO Plaza from 8:00 a.m. tp 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 19. To Schedule an appointment, CLICK HERE. 
 
 This is a developing news story. More information will be posted as it becomes available. ||||| This photo provided by Danae Orlob shows an Amtrak train that derailed south of Seattle on Monday, Dec. 18, 2017. Authorities reported "injuries and casualties." The train derailed about 40 miles (64... (Associated Press) 
 
 TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — An Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a new route hurtled off an overpass Monday near Tacoma and spilled some of its cars onto the highway below, killing an undisclosed number of people, authorities said. 
 
 Seventy-eight passengers and five crew members were aboard when the train derailed about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Seattle before 8 a.m., Amtrak said. 
 
 Ed Troyer, a spokesman with the Pierce County Sheriff's office, said multiple people were killed aboard the southbound train, but no numbers were immediately available. 
 
 The sheriff's office said several vehicles on Interstate 5 were struck by falling train cars and multiple motorists were injured. No fatalities of motorists were reported. 
 
 Chris Karnes was on the train, three or four cars back from the front. 
 
 "I'm not sure what got hit. I'm not sure what happened," Karnes said. 
 
 Medical tents were set up in the highway median just south of DuPont. 
 
 "The only car that is on the tracks is the rear locomotive. There are several cars that are hanging over the overpass," Karnes said. 
 
 In a statement, Amtrak said the train that derailed was Train 501, offering service from Seattle to Portland. 
 
 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. 
 
 It left Seattle around 6 a.m., according to an Amtrak schedule, and was due in Portland about 3 1/2 hours later. 
 
 All southbound lanes of I-5 were closed south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and motorists were being warned to avoid the area. 
 
 The train was going 81.1 mph moments before the derailment, according to transitdocs.com, a website that maps Amtrak train locations and speeds using data from the railroad's train tracker app. 
 
 The maximum speed along the stretch of track, known as Point Defiance Bypass, is 79 mph, according to information about the project posted online by the Washington State Department of Transportation. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Sally Ho and Phuong Le in Seattle and Michael Sisak in Philadelphia contributed to this report. ||||| Lakewood leaders gave a chilly reception to a new high-speed rail plan for Amtrak trains that starts running later this month. (Photo: KOMO News) 
 
 LAKEWOOD, Wash. - City leaders gave a chilly reception to a new high-speed rail plan for Amtrak trains that starts running later this month. 
 
 The idea is to use the Sound Transit tracks that cut through the city and open them up to Amtrak trains. However, huge safety concerns remain. 
 
 State transportation workers came to Lakewood Monday night to share progress on the bypass project. 
 
 
 
 Right now, passenger trains, including Amtrak Cascades, must slow down due to curves and single-track tunnels on the BNSF Railway main line tracks near Point Defiance and along southern Puget Sound. This project reroutes passenger trains to a bypass rail line along I-5. The proposed route is the same that Sound Transit uses for Sounder commuter rail service to Lakewood. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Recent track upgrades will allow Amtrak to send its locomotives through at 79 miles an hour. City officials in Lakewood have long been worried about the dangers residents could face as these trains race through the city. 
 
 “We want to make sure as many people as possible understand what's going on, understand we are starting a new service on December 18th and ensure that they know how to stay safe around the railroad tracks,” said Janet Matkin with WSDOT. 
 
 
 
 Amtrak said the bypass route saves railway passengers about 10 minutes and improves on-time reliability. 
 
 The mayor of Lakewood believes it is just a matter of time before these high speed trains kill someone. He asked the DOT presenters to do better. Mayor Don Anderson said grade separations – such as overpasses – should be included to keep trains away from cars and pedestrians. 
 
 
 
 “Come back when there is that accident, and try to justify not putting in those safety enhancements, or you can go back now and advocate for the money to do it, because this project was never needed and endangers our citizens,” Anderson said. ||||| An Amtrak passenger train derailed near Olympia on Monday morning at a curve in the tracks. It had been southbound from Seattle on the inaugural run of a new service. 
 
 An Amtrak train on its inaugural run of a newly opened, faster rail line careened off the tracks near Olympia early Monday, sending rail cars off an overpass onto rush-hour traffic on Interstate 5 in a derailment that killed at least three people, injured scores of others and littered the freeway and nearby woods with a twisted chain of wreckage. 
 
 Aside from the dead, about 80 people suffered injuries ranging from minor scrapes to life-threatening wounds and were taken to various hospitals for treatment. 
 
 Passengers who survived the deadly wreck and motorists who witnessed it later recounted a surreal domino effect as, one by one, 13 of the train’s 14 railcars toppled from the track, with parts of the train left dangling from the railway span. 
 
 Shortly after 7:30 a.m., the Portland-bound train had just come out of a curve when it plunged off the tracks with nearly 80 passengers and seven crew members aboard, along a stretch of the just-opened Point Defiance Bypass in DuPont. 
 
 An Amtrak passenger train derailed near Olympia on Monday morning. It had been southbound from Seattle on the inaugural run of a new route. Transportation reporter Mike Lindblom explains what we know. (The Seattle Times) 
 
 As the train’s locomotive and trailing railcars spilled off the tracks, they slammed into a semitruck and a tractor-trailer as well as five other vehicles that had been heading down the freeway toward Olympia during the busy morning commute. 
 
 “It sounded like being on the inside of an aluminum can being crushed,” said Chris Karnes, a Tacoma software developer who was among those riding the train when it jumped the track. “And then we were not on the tracks anymore.” 
 
 The train’s lights blinked out and passengers heard “crumpling and crashing and screaming from people,” Karnes said. 
 
 Officials did not immediately say what caused the crash, though experts and witnesses speculated the train’s speed was a factor. Only the train’s rear locomotive remained on the tracks. A late-night news conference by National Transportation Safety Board officials verified the train was going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. Officials said they had no other information. 
 
 Authorities had not identified the dead as of Monday evening. 
 
 Emergency medical responders battled stalled traffic stretching for miles from the crash site to take the injured to hospitals in Tacoma, Lakewood, Gig Harbor, Olympia and at nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord. A number of the injured had been treated and released as of Monday afternoon, but others weren’t as lucky. 
 
 At least five patients taken to Madigan Army Medical Center had been admitted to the intensive-care unit, according to a statement from the hospital. Three patients underwent orthopedic surgery at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia; two others with severe injuries were still being treated late Monday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma. 
 
 The train’s conductor and engineer survived but were disoriented, said Detective Chris Bailey of the Steilacoom Public Safety Department, who was one of the first responders on the scene. Their names weren’t released Monday. 
 
 In audio originally broadcast on the BNSF dispatch channel, an Amtrak conductor calls for help following the derailment from bridge onto Interstate 5 near Olympia. (Audio Provided by Broadcastify) 
 
 Connect with loved ones Amtrak is telling people who need information about their friends or family who might have been on the train to call 1-800-523-9101. 
 
 An Amtrak conductor can be heard describing the derailment and requesting help on audio of the BNSF dispatch channel. 
 
 “Emergency, emergency, emergency,” the conductor can be heard saying. “We are on the ground.” 
 
 Some travelers who encountered the grisly scene rushed to help the wounded. 
 
 “We were very close to the trains, and it was a chaotic scene, but a scene of complete purpose,” said Dr. Nathan Selden, a Portland neurosurgeon who tended to victims. “Everybody knew what the goal was.” 
 
 Quick deceleration 
 
 Amtrak Cascades Train 501 — among a fleet of high-speed passenger trains that travel daily between British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon — departed Seattle for Portland about 6 a.m. The train stopped at the new passenger station in Freighthouse Square, near the Tacoma Dome, before heading south on the newly opened Point Defiance Bypass Route. 
 
 The train was next heading into a curve with a posted 30 mph limit just southwest of the Eagles Pride Golf Course between Lakewood and Olympia near the Nisqually River delta. Moments before the wreck, speeds were gauged at about 81 mph, according to transitdocs.com, a website that maps Amtrak train locations and speeds using data from the railroad’s train tracker app. 
 
 The maximum allowed speed along the newly rebuilt stretch of track is 79 mph, according to Sound Transit, the regional transit authority that owns and maintains the line. But the route also includes “a number of areas where the speeds are limited below that maximum,” according to a statement issued by Sound Transit on Monday afternoon. 
 
 Speed signs are posted and engineers are trained to slow according to the posted speeds, the transit agency added. 
 
 In the stretch of track where the train derailed, an engineer faces the challenge of decelerating over a short distance, when approaching the curve and bypass, said John Hiatt, a longtime private investigator in train-safety disputes. 
 
 “A downward grade coming into that curve, you’ve got that working against you. You’ve got to make a pretty good estimate of how to get that down from 81 to 30,” Hiatt said of the track, located near Mounts Road outside of DuPont. “From what I’ve heard, there were several complaints by engineers about this.” 
 
 Bob Chipkevich, a former National Transportation Safety Board director of railroad, pipeline and hazardous-materials investigations, said the wreck appeared to be a high-speed derailment based on the television images he’d seen of the accident Monday. 
 
 “Like an automobile, the faster you are going the more violent it can be when you leave the track; cars are strewn farther from the track and more cars are derailed,” said Chipkevich. 
 
 Karnes added Monday that he did not feel the train slow down before reaching the curve, though he wasn’t paying close attention. 
 
 Amtrak officials said Monday the automatic speed-limiting technology known as “positive train control” wasn’t in operation at the time of Train 501’s derailment. 
 
 The retrofit of the newly opened line included safety systems that can prevent excessively dangerous speeds; the 14.5-mile corridor is now equipped for positive train control, but the train controls aren’t yet operating in that area, said Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson, and an Amtrak spokesman said the equipment was still being tested. 
 
 Federal safety officials have been pushing for the implementation of those control systems for years, including in 1993 after a head-on crash between freight trains killed five crewmen in Kelso. Congress ordered in 2008 that they be in use by the end of 2015, but the mandate on train controls has been delayed until the end of 2018. Lawmakers have also left open the possibility of another delay until 2020. 
 
 Since then, other fatal accidents have occurred on passenger trains without the control system installed. That includes a 2013 commuter-train crash in the Bronx that killed four and a 2015 Amtrak crash in Philadelphia, when a train traveling more than twice the speed limit went off the tracks, killing eight people. 
 
 Deborah Hersman, a former NTSB chairwoman who now leads the Chicago-based National Safety Council, said the speed-limiting technology is already in use in European and Asian countries with high-speed rail systems. 
 
 “People have this technology in their phones,” she said. “A Pokémon app can tell you’re driving, and disable the app.” 
 
 Locomotive data recorder 
 
 The NTSB said it will assess the train’s speed as part of an investigation the agency launched Monday. The Washington State Department of Transportation said it didn’t know what caused the derailment, said Janet Matkin, spokeswoman for the WSDOT’s rail division. 
 
 A critical piece of evidence is the data recorder in the locomotive that will show the operating speed before the derailment, if the engineer was applying the brakes and if the train was decelerating, Chipkevich said. 
 
 A crew of NTSB specialists will be on the scene looking at different aspects of the derailment. A track specialist will review design, maintenance and construction records as well as inspect the rails to determine when the cars left the track. 
 
 An NTSB team was scheduled to arrive in Seattle late Monday, said NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss. The team of 15 or 20 people will include personnel from NTSB’s family-assistance, rail, media-relations and human-performance programs, Weiss said. NTSB board member Bella Dinh-Zarr also will be on the team. 
 
 The southbound lanes of Interstate 5 remained blocked by the wreckage and responding personnel throughout Monday. That stretch of I-5 south near the accident site likely will stay closed through Tuesday morning while state and federal investigators assess the scene. 
 
 Monday’s wreck was the second Cascades derailment this year. In July, a train ran a stop signal and was deflected into gravel near Chambers Bay along Puget Sound, causing some minor injuries. 
 
 Rerouted passenger trains 
 
 The train that jumped the track Monday was the first to travel the Point Defiance Bypass, a rebuilt rail line previously used for occasional freight and military transport. The route had been opened Monday specifically for the Amtrak Cascades fleet — the passenger-train service jointly owned by WSDOT and the Oregon Department of Transportation. Amtrak operates the service for the two states as a contractor, and is responsible for day-to-day operations. 
 
 The new Sound Transit-owned bypass rerouted passenger trains inland from a more scenic, waterfront route around Tacoma’s Point Defiance. The route aimed to shave 10 minutes off the typical 3 1/2-hour trip between Portland and Seattle, with Monday’s route opening culminating a three-year, $181 million rail project funded by federal stimulus money. 
 
 State transportation officials in recent months had hailed the new route as a watershed for regional passenger rail travel that would provide two additional daily trips between Seattle and Portland. 
 
 But some local government officials feared the higher-speed trains traveling a new inland route posed potential dangers, particularly where the track crossed roadways. 
 
 As the opening of the new route neared, several agencies engaged in a public-awareness campaign about train safety. Amtrak posted an online public-service message featuring Seattle Seahawks wide-receiver Doug Baldwin. Joint Base Lewis-McChord also tweeted out a warning last week that noted “trains traveling about 80 miles per hour begin running on the tracks along the JBLM I-5 corridor on Dec. 18.” 
 
 “Never stop on the tracks,” the tweet added. 
 
 Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency early Monday and rushed to the incident command post quickly established near the accident site. 
 
 President Donald Trump tweeted that the derailment “shows more than ever” why his soon-to-be-released infrastructure plan should be adopted. He also tweeted that his “thoughts and prayers” and “deepest sympathies” were with everyone involved and thanked first responders. 
 
 It was unclear whether Trump was aware that the stretch of railway where the accident occurred had recently been rebuilt. 
 
 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. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2017 
 
 Eagerly anticipated 
 
 Witnesses and survivors of Monday’s derailment recounted a morning that for many had been an eagerly anticipated event before tragedy struck. 
 
 Anthony Raimondi, of Gig Harbor, a former Amtrak employee, was near the front of the train when he felt the car lean and everything went dark. 
 
 After the wreck, another man in the same car punched open a window and the two of them helped each other climb out the window and down off the train, he said. 
 
 “I got out and I’m very lucky except for a little bump on my leg,” he said. 
 
 Antony Raimondi of Gig Harbor was riding the inaugural Amtrak train No. 501 for fun this morning when it derailed from bridge onto Interstate 5 near Olympia. (Ramon Dompor / The Seattle Times) 
 
 Karnes, a transit advocate from Tacoma, said he was on the train to Portland to do some Christmas shopping with his boyfriend. 
 
 “Our new Amtrak station was opening up in Tacoma, so I wanted to be on the first train out,” he said. 
 
 The train seemed to be traveling normally when Karnes said he heard a creaking sound and felt the train rock slightly. Then, suddenly, his body launched into the seat in front of his. 
 
 After the car Karnes was in “careened off an embankment,” he and other passengers had to kick out a window and jump into some bushes onto an embankment that led down to Interstate 5, he said. 
 
 One man was lying on the ground on the embankment, Karnes said. “It looked like he might have been thrown from the train.” 
 
 Emma Shafer, a 20-year-old student at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts, was on the train heading to Vancouver, Wash., for her winter break when the train derailed. 
 
 There were about 12 people in her car, including a family, and they all banded together “as time went on” during the trip, she said. 
 
 Shafer said she was able to escape the car by climbing over seats to get around pieces of the train that were blocking the way out. While exiting, she said she saw someone pinned under the train and severely hurt. 
 
 The family made it out, she said. She suffered minor injuries, a hurt ear and elbow. 
 
 “It was really disorientating,” Shafer said. “I felt dizzy and a little bit sick.” 
 
 Maria Hetland said she was driving to work on northbound Interstate 5 when traffic suddenly slowed. She rolled down her window and saw the train. “It was awful,” she said. 
 
 One train car was beneath the bridge sitting parallel to the roadway, Hetland said. Another dangled from a rail bridge that crosses I-5. The injured were everywhere. 
 
 Multiple Pierce and Thurston County residents gave blood to help survivors. Optum Pierce Behavioral Health Organization, Pierce County’s mental-health provider, set up a free emotional support line for those affected by the crash at 866-342-6892, and Alaska Airlines announced it would reduce airfares between Seattle and Portland in response to the fatal wreck. 
 
 Correction: A previous version of this story reported, citing The Associated Press, that at least six people were killed in the derailment. Authorities later confirmed at least three people were killed, though victims remain in the hospital. 
 
 This report includes reporting from staff writers Mike Baker, Jim Brunner, Evan Bush, Christine Clarridge, Sara Jean Green, Hal Bernton, David Gutman, Jessica Lee, Mike Lindblom, Lewis Kamb, Joseph O’Sullivan, Steve Miletich and Christine Willmsen, and staff researcher Miyoko Wolf.
– An Amtrak train making its first run on a new route derailed near Tacoma Monday morning, spilling train cars onto a busy interstate. A spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff's office initially reported six fatalities, all of them train passengers, per the Seattle Times. Officials later put the number of confirmed dead at three. Scores more were injured, including motorists. KOMO reports that nearly 80 people were taken to local hospitals, and some are in critical condition. The train derailed just before 8am local time Monday about 40 miles south of Seattle, closing all southbound lanes of Interstate 5, per the AP. The Washington Post reports 13 cars left the track. The cause remains under investigation. More on the accident: The route: Train 501 derailed on its inaugural run on a new route, having left Seattle for Portland at 6am; the trip was to take about 3.5 hours. The train was making use of a new bypass, and a local mayor had warned earlier this month about potential accidents, as recounted in this story at KOMO, though the AP notes Don Anderson suggested the most vulnerable points involved crossings where a train could strike a car or passenger. The bypass was intended to help trains avoid slow curves and single-track tunnels along the previous route.