Amtrak train derails after hitting rocks
NORTHFIELD, VT. >> An Amtrak train headed from Vermont to Washington, D.C., on Monday hit rocks that had fallen onto the track from a ledge, spilling the locomotive and a passenger car down an embankment, derailing three other cars and injuring seven people, authorities said.
The Vermonter train carrying 98 passengers and four crew members derailed at around 10:30 a.m. in Northfield, about 20 miles southwest of Montpelier. Officials with the Federal Railroad Administration are investigating.
“This was a freak of nature,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said at a news conference.
One of the injured people was airlifted to DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire and was being evaluated in the emergency room, spokesman Rick Adams said. Six others went to Central Vermont Medical Center with injuries including neck, back and shoulder pain and lightheadedness.
The Federal Railroad Administration said Monday a crew member was seriously injured.
The track where the crash occurred had been part of a $220 million upgrade of New England Central Railroad tracks funded with help from a $50 million federal recovery grant. In early 2013, after the upgrade had been completed, the speed limit in the area was increased from 55 to 59 mph.
“There is no reason to believe there was any negligence on anyone’s part,” Shumlin said. “We don’t have all the details, but this track was rebuilt. It was a state-of-the-art track. Ledge slides happen.”
Federal records show the company that operates that stretch of tracks, which is part of the Genesee and Wyoming Railroad, has had four accidents since 2006 that could have involved debris on the tracks.
In the railroad’s 54 accidents since 2006, three people died.
Federal safety rules for tracks that carry passengers require at least two inspections every week, with at least one day between each inspection.
State officials said a freight train had passed over the same tracks Sunday night with no problems.
Officials said there’s no technology that could have alerted the crew to the slide.
“There is not really anything that’s going to detect this kind of thing,” said Dan Delabruere, the rail chief of the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
Numerous derailments around the world have been caused by debris on tracks, many linked to heavy rains that trigger slides or heavy winds that knock down trees. In 2010, a train in Beijing hit mounds of debris left on the track following a landslide, killing 19 people.
The region near Monday’s derailment received 2.5 inches of rain Thursday and Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
Company officials confirmed details of the crash but did not immediately provide a comment.
Bob Redmond, of Bay City, Michigan, was sitting in the front row of the third car while on a foliage tour when the train derailed. He looked out the window and saw the car that had been ahead of his was now alongside him.