Two dead, more than 100 hurt in S. C. crash
Passenger train on wrong track; wreck is third in 2 months
An Amtrak train traveling on the wrong track crashed into the back of a CSX freight train early Sunday in South Carolina, killing two Amtrak employees and injuring more than100 people, authorities said.
It was the third deadly wreck involving Amtrak in less than two months.
“They weren’t supposed to be meeting like that, clearly,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said. “It appears that Amtrak was on the wrong track.” He said the CSX train seemed to be on the track it was supposed to be on.
The wreck involving Amtrak Train
91, heading from New York to Miami, occurred at 2: 35 a. m. in Cayce, S. C., about 10 miles south of Columbia, according to Derrec Becker of South Carolina Emergency Management.
The CSX train was parked on a side track when the Amtrak train slammed into it at about 59 mph, McMaster said. Of the 139 people on the Amtrak train, 116 people were taken to hospitals, he said. Eight were Amtrak employees.
In a conference call with reporters, Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson said the signal system was not operational and the train’s movements were being managed by a CSX dispatcher when it rear- ended the freight train. Although the train was behind schedule, it was not speeding to make up time, Anderson said.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said a critical question investigators were looking into was why track switches in the crash area were “locked and lined” in a position that took the Amtrak train off the main track, where it struck the CSX train.
Sumwalt said a forward- facing video recorder from the Amtrak train had been recovered and shipped to Washington for inspection. He said investigators were still searching for event data recorders from both trains. Data from those devices could indicate whether the Amtrak train braked before the impact, he said.
Sumwalt said the speed limit for passenger trains in the area is 59 mph.
McMaster described the freight train engines as “all torn up,” and the Amtrak engine as “barely recognizable” from the impact.
One of the injured was in critical condition, and two were listed as serious, with the rest having minor injuries such as cuts and bruises, said Steve Shelton, Palmetto health director of emergency preparedness.
“We know that they are shaken up quite a bit, and this is unlike anything else they’ve ever been through before,” Capt. Adam Myrick with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department told The State newspaper in Columbia. “We wanted to get themout of the cold, get them out of theweather.”
Temperatures were in the upper 30s at the time of the collision.
Myrick told USA TODAY that the crash happened in a mostly industrial area near the intersection of Interstate26 and I- 77.
President Trump “was briefed on the train accident in South Carolina and is receiving regular updates,” deputy White House press secretary Lindsay Walters said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone that has been affected by this incident.”
Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher identified those killed as Michael Kempf, 54, of Savannah, Ga., and Michael Cella, 36, of Orange Park, Fla.
Kempf was the Amtrak engineer and Cella was the conductor, she said.
About 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled at the scene, Becker said. Hazmat crews were dispatched, and the spill was being contained. Therewas no threat to the public, he said.
The Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at a nearby school to assist with the injured, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter.
It was the second major crash for Amtrak in less than a week. On Wednesday, a train carrying Republican members of Congress to a retreat in West Virginia hit a garbage truck in rural Virginia. The crash killed one person in the truck and left others wounded.
In December, a passenger train derailed on an overpass near Seattle, with cars crashing into the highway below, killing three people.
In 2015, an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia, killing eight people and injuring more than 200.