Deadly Missouri derailment latest on long Amtrak list
The deadly derailment of an Amtrak train in Missouri on Monday added to the tragic list of accidents for the passenger rail service.
Three people were killed and dozens injured when the train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago hit a dump truck and derailed in a rural area near Mendon, Missouri, officials said.
The Amtrak Southwest Chief was carrying 243 passengers and 12 crew members when the collision happened in the afternoon, Amtrak said. Highway Patrol said seven cars derailed.
Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman Justin Dunn confirmed the deaths at a news conference. Two train passengers and the driver of the dump truck were killed.
He said the collision occurred at an uncontrolled crossing without lights or signals.
The Chariton County Ambulance Service said at least 50 people were injured.
It was the second deadly Amtrak accident in two days. Three people were killed on Sunday when an Amtrak commuter train smashed into a car in Brentwood in Northern California, said the California Highway Patrol.
Since the intercity transit network Amtrak began operating in 1971, it has had nearly 75 serious accidents, resulting from causes such as excessive speed, collisions, bad weather, bridge malfunctions, and faulty equipment and tracks.
Amtrak is a federally chartered corporation, with the United States government as the majority stockholder. The board is appointed by the president and confirmed by the US Senate. Amtrak is operated as a for-profit company.
Passenger Robert Nightingale, the owner of an art gallery in Taos, New Mexico, said he was dozing off in his sleeper room when the crash happened. “Everything started to go in slow motion,” he told CNN, describing how the train rocked before tumbling onto its side.
In September, three people died when an Amtrak passenger train derailed in north central Montana.
In May 2015, a deadly derailment due to excessive speed on a curve in Philadelphia left eight people dead and 185 injured.
The deadliest crash occurred in Mobile, Alabama, in September 1993, in which 47 people died. An Amtrak train hit a bridge that had been pushed out of alignment by a barge collision, fell into a river and caught fire.