TRAINS IN DEADLY COLLISION

AN AMTRAK passenger train slammed into a parked freight train in the earlymorning darkness Sunday after a thrown switch sent it hurtling down a side track, authorities said. Two Amtrak crew members were killed, and more than 100 people were injured.

It was the third deadly wreck involving Amtrak in less than two months. The Silver Star, en route from New York to Miami with nearly 150 people aboard, was going an estimated 100km/h when it struck the empty CSX train around 2.45am, Governor Henry McMaster said.

The crash happened near a switchyard about 16km south of Columbia where railcars hauling cars are loaded and unloaded. Many of the passengers were asleep when the crash jolted them awake and forced them into the cold.

Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators found a track switch had been set in a position that forced the Amtrak train off the main track and onto the siding.

He said the question for investigators is why that happened. The NTSB said it was working to confirm the cause of the accident.

Picture: TIM DOMINICK/THE STATE Authorities investigate the scene of an Amtrak train crash about 16km south of Columbia, in South Carolina, on early Sunday morning which claimed the lives of two crew members and injured more than 100 others.