Backgrounder: U.S. railroad accidents in recent years

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and more than 100 injured after an Amtrak train derailed on Monday near Tacoma in Washington State on the U.S. West Coast. [ With 77 passengers and six crew members on board, the train was on its inaugural run on a faster route when 13 of its 14 cars jumped the track, with some falling off a bridge and hitting cars and other vehicles on the freeway below.

In recent years, railroad accidents have occurred frequently in the United States. The following is a chronology of railroad accidents in the U.S. in recent years:

-- LAKELAND, Florida, Nov. 27, 2017: A cargo train carrying molten sulfur derailed on its way from Waycross to Winston in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida. The accident left several cars mangled but no injuries were reported.

-- TACOMA, Washington, July 2, 2017: A train carrying more than 250 people derailed in the town of Steilacoo; no serious injuries were reported.

-- HOBOKEN, New Jersey, Sept. 30, 2016: A transit train crashed into New Jersey's Hoboken Station, killing one person on the platform and injuring 108 due to a operator error. The train was not equipped with positive train control technology, which can automatically slow down trains when they are running too fast.

-- CHESTER, Pennsylvania, April 3, 2016: An Amtrak hit a backhoe working on tracks on its way to Savannah, killing two maintenance workers and injuring 41. The accident was due to failure to deploy a supplemental shunting device for the crew working on the track.

-- CIMARRON, Kansas, March 14, 2016: An Amtrak derailed about 20 miles (32 km) west of Dodge City in Kansas while traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago, injuring 28 people. An investigation concluded that accident was due to prior damage of the track caused by an agricultural vehicle.

-- PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, May 12, 2015: An Amtrak train derailed, killing eight people and injuring more than 200. It was the deadliest accident on the Northeast Corridor since 1987. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the driver was distracted by radio transmissions and lost track of where he was.

-- CHATSWORTH, California, Sept. 12, 2008: A Metrolink train collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles' Chatworth district, killing 25 people and injuring 135. The NTSB faulted the Metrolink train engineer, who was texting while on duty. Enditem