Of course! Just watched the update - 3 dead, two on the Train and the Dump Truck Driver. I don’t want to speculate but if it was head-on the Engineer and the Conductor.
Watched the opening of NBC News - a major train derailment with fatalities is THIRD on their list of stories. B/c they probably can’t find it on a map and it’s ABORTION ABORTION ABORTION 24/7.
Only the Engineer is usually in the cab of the locomotive on Amtrak. The conductors, you have a lead and assistants are in the cars. Also you have attendant for each sleeper and a cafe car attendant and a chef for the diner plus probably 2 servers.
Locomotive cabs are well reinforced. If it took a indirect hit, i.e. not the dump bead full of gravel, dirt, etc., the engineer IMHO likely survived but probably has some serious injuries from the quick stop. I bet the fatalities are from the passenger cars, probably blunt force from hitting or being hit by something.
From video and pictures the people in the cars seem to be in OK shape and the cars intact. I wouldn’t want to have been in the vestibule passing between cars when it flopped over.
If it the Engineer, I’d be sad. He loved the Virtual Railfan Camera in LaPlata. He toots his horn when he is there and usually give a wave to the camera.