Poor maintenance, overworked employees and negligent inspection practices of the private company that owns the stretch of rail in Montana caused a 2021 Amtrak train derailment that killed three people and injured more than 40, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Washington Post reports.

Eight of the Empire Builder’s ten rail cars, traveling from Chicago to Seattle flew off the tracks outside Joplin, Montana in September 2021.  Investigators found that the single inspector responsible for examing the track was responsible for approving the condition of an average of 73 miles of track per day, including inspecting the condition of the rail and the alignment of rail joints.  On the day of his last inspection of the section of track where the derailment took place, his daily work sheet showed he was supposed to inspect more than 120 miles of rail; that inspection took place two days before the derailment.  Investigators found that the crash was caused by the misalignment of two sections of track that launched the train off the tracks, something that would likely have been spotted with more attentive and frequent inspections.

The NTSB also noted that the high number of injuries on the train were due to passengers not being securely seatbelted in their seats at the time of the derailment, resulting in dozens being thrown from the wreckage.  Unlike planes, trains do not typically recommend passengers stay belted into their seats if they’re not transiting the aisle; the NTSB will consider making repeated announcements with the recommendation mandatory, as is done on airplanes to prevent injuries from severe turbulence.