Train derails in Mendon, Missouri, killing 3: What we know
National Transportation Safety Board officials arrived in rural Missouri on Tuesday to investigate an Amtrak train derailed killed three people.
Amtrak talked about 275 passengers and 12 crew members were on a train en route to Chicago from Los Angeles when it collided with a truck Monday afternoon, killing the driver.
Two passengers on the train were also killed when seven of the eight carriages on the Amtrak Southwest Chief Cpl said. Justin Dunn, spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
The crash happened at 12:42 p.m. in Mendon, Missouri, about 84 miles northeast of Kansas City. It after another Amtrak train crash on Sunday in northern California where three people died.
Here’s what we know on Tuesday:
How did the train derail?
The crash and derailment occurred on a gravel road in Chariton County, southwest of Mendon, at an “unregulated intersection,” said Lt. Eric Brown of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. no traffic lights or electronic controls.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday said it was too early to speculate as to why the truck was on the tracks at an intersection.
Mike Spencer, a farmer who works near the crash site, said the dump truck driver was carrying rocks to collect money on a local creek for an ongoing project. Locals say crossing the road is dangerous, especially for those driving slow farm equipment.
Passengers recount the moment of the accident
Responding officials at the scene discovered the carriages were overturned and passengers were running around trying to get out.
“Suddenly, the car we were traveling on passed, and everyone has flown everywhere, seats split, bags scattered everywhere,” Amtrak passenger Jason Drinkard, who boarded at Kansas City’s Union Station, told KMBC News.
Passenger Rob Nightingale was dozing off in his cabin when he was startled awake when the carriage overturned, pushing the windows to the ground, he told the Associated Press. Nightingale, who was not injured, and other passengers climbed out of the overturned vehicle and through another window to safety.
Nightingale reported seeing the wreckage when he got out of the ship.
Among the passengers were 16 children and eight adults from two Scouting corps heading to Wisconsin, said Scott Armstrong, national media relations manager for the Scouts of America. No one in the group was seriously harmed.
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NTSB investigating the accident
The National Transportation Safety Board planned to send a Go team 14 members to the site on Tuesday.
NTSB President Jennifer Homendy said trains would not be able to use the tracks for “a matter of days” as investigators collect evidence.
Brown said Monday marks the start of a longer investigation into Amtrak’s latest derailment. “We have a lot of information that we are looking for and need to gather,” he said at a news conference.
Second Amtrak crash in 2 days
This is the second fatal Amtrak crash in recent days. On Sunday, an Amtrak commuter train in Brentwood, California, hit a car at an unmarked crosswalk. Three people inside the vehicle were killed and three others injured, the California Highway Patrol reported.
In September, three people died when one Amtrak train derails in central north Montananear Joplin, on the journey between Seattle and Chicago.
CALIFORNIA CRASH:At least 3 people died after the Amtrak train collided with a car
2021 DETAILS:The cause of the train derailment in Montana is still under investigation
Contribution: Associated Press