Updated on: 10/12/2018
Through public disclosure requests, Davis Law Group, P.S., obtained 911 audio recordings from multiple victims of the Dec. 18, 2017, Amtrak Cascades train derailment in Dupont, Washington.
Davis Law Group is representing multiple victims of the derailment, which claimed the lives of three people and injured dozens more. The National Transportation Safety Board continues to look into the cause of the derailment, an investigation that is expected to last 12-24 months.
'Tons Of People Are Hurt'
In perhaps the most frightening 911 call after the Amtrak derailment, a mother speaks with dispatchers and seeks guidance as she waits for medical attention.
“Tons of people are hurt!” she cried into the phone from one of the derailed passenger cars.
“Are you with anybody that’s hurt,” the dispatcher asked.
“We’re all hurt,” she cried.
“We’re going to get help, I promise,” she told her boy.
The dispatcher asked about the woman and boys' injuries.
“My abdomen hurts really bad. I don’t feel good,” said the woman who was bleeding from her head and cried in panic each time she couldn’t find an answer to a dispatcher’s questions. “I don’t know how old I am off the top of my head. I’m sorry!”
The woman was in Car 5 with her 14-year-old son as the passenger train derailed when it through a curve at 78 mph in a 30 mph zone over Interstate 5.
'I'm Going To Help People Out'
In another 911 recording, a man speaks to dispatchers as he escapes from a train car and begins helping other victims of the crash.
“I’m on the train from Tacoma, we just crashed,” the man says. “We’re probably going to need some medical aid for a lot of people. We’ve got cars everywhere.”
The man was asked by a dispatcher if there was any fire in his train car. There wasn’t, but he soon went and checked on others.
“I’m going to try and get out and help some people out,” he says.
You can hear on the 911 call the man going from car to car looking for injured people.