SPOKANE, Wash.—The Pierce County Amtrak incident was not the first time the Northwest has dealt with dangerous train derailments.
Reports said the most recent was just outside of Sprague in 2006 when an Amtak train that was traveling between Portland and Chicago went off the tracks. Authorities determined the cause was a broken rail.
Authorities said that derailment injured more than a dozen of the 86 passengers on board.
Officials reported earlier in 2006 a train derailment injured 60 when four cars careened off the tracks near the Columbia Gorge.
In eastern Washington, there have been at least seven reported Amtrak incidents in the past two decades, according to reports.