Posted on 06/28/2022 9:28:34 PM PDT by Morgana
Missouri officials have declared a 'large fatality event' after a passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago hit a dump truck that was blocking a public crossing and completely derailed on Monday.
Three people are dead -- including two on the train and one in the dump truck -- after the train's eight cars and its two locomotives came off the tracks, officials with the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
At least 50 people were injured, the Chariton County Ambulance Service said. At least nine patients were being taken to a University of Missouri Health Care hospital in Columbia, Missouri, about 90 miles away, several of them arriving by helicopter.
State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Brown said at a 5pm press conference there was still an 'active and ongoing investigation at the scene' but that all the injured had been transported to area hospitals.
The wreck occurred at 12.42pm CT Monday, when the Southwest Chief Train 4 collided with a truck that was obstructing a public crossing and came off the tracks near Mendon, Missouri, about 100 miles northeast of Kansas City, Amtrak confirmed to DailyMail.com.
The collision occurred at the uncontrolled Porch Prairie Avenue gravel road crossing, which has no electronic warning devices or gates, officials said.
Amtrak said in a statement that there were 243 passengers and 12 crew members aboard at the time of the crash. State troopers said the total number of people on the train may have been lower, but estimated that it was at least 200.
The federal National Transportation Safety Board is deploying a 14-member 'go-team' to the site of the derailment to investigate. NTSB Chair Jennifer L. Homendy will join to serve as the spokesperson on the scene, the agency said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
where’s willie green??!!!!
Trump’s fault.
“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement that he was ‘saddened by the tragic loss of life and injuries in the Missouri train derailment today,’ adding that Federal Railroad Administration staff would support the investigation.”
No it’s Buttplug’s fault.
First of all Trains have the right of way on their rails. However with that said most RR crossings don’t have lights/guards and other safety features. Buttplug needs to do something about this. Most of the accidents that happen at train crossings happen and that have happened this month, happened because there was nothing to warn people a train was coming.
Also Amtrak is not like other trains. It’s faster and more quiet. this is why we need flashing lights and guards up at all crossings.
Joe and Pete’s transportation.
This had better change fast.
See my rant on post 4.
I was on Amtrak Auto Rail out of Lorton Vriginia to Florida - ready for departure when one of the cars left the track (derailed) as soon as we started. ook hours getting that car back on the track. I can’t imagine what it was like for those people ....it was enough to know something was wrong let alone completely derail!
Amtrak is a joke compared to high speed rail in countries like China and Japan .
Amtrak is not quieter than freight trains outside what’s called the Northeast Corridor (former Pennsylvania and New Haven railroads between Boston and Washington DC), being diesel-powered; the General Electric Genesis locos on this train have four-stroke diesels, which are generally louder than the former two-stroke diesels Amtrak used twenty years ago or so. And they’re only slightly faster than freight trains thanks to government regulation (top speed 79 mph generally, with some exceptions).
The Amtrak train on this route hasn’t been known as the Super Chief since 1974, when it was renamed the Southwest Limited. It became the Southwest Chief in 1984.
The grade crossing where the dumptruck was is on a dirt road with only crossbucks indicating where the rails are. All road vehicles are required to stop, look both directions and listen for train horns before attempting to cross the tracks. And the rails are railroad property.
Unless this track goes around the bend, the fault lies with the truck driver. If you can see a train a mile away, stop.
“Transportation Sec Pete”. Makes me ill to see its name in such a position
I have been involved on the EMS side of several vehicle train crashes. Cargo trains
A couple of large truck incidents. They are a mess for sure.
Evidence can be spread for a long ways. Found one truck engine almost 2 miles down the track.
The car one were most likely suicides’.
The Truck one were most likely “ I can make it”
But who knows the drivers where spread all over the place.
This is why we’ll never have many miles of high-speed rail — operation at over 90 mph requires complete grade separation of railways and roadways.
A high-speed train hitting a dump truck at 250 mph would not be a good thing.
I have long argued that passenger service should be on elevated tracks. There should be no “at grade” crossings.
Anything suspicious about the autopsies of any of the dead, like, this injury was not from a train wreck?
No, no, we need to spend many billions of dollars to put up lights and automated gates every place a vehicle might cross a railroad track, whether it’s a county road, a farm lane, a desert track, or whatever. Never mind how much or how little traffic the rail line might carry, either. If it saves one stupid driver’s life, it’s worth it.
Crossbuck signs and “Stop, look, listen” are just so 20th-century.
It was beautiful when Santa Fe owned it after Amtrak took it over now it’s dirty and late or broke down they haven’t mad a profit from day one now it’s government bail out program.
Wish Santa Fe would take it back
I know of none that can’t hear a train coming. The article seems to suggest the truck was stopped on the track and not subject to poor timing. The photos show that the truck could have seen the train from a considerable distance.
Four dead. Three on the train and one in the dump truck.
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