South Carolina train crash: Amtrak facing questions after second deadly collision in a week

The two fatalities were Amtrak employees

Amtrak is under mounting pressure after two of its employees were killed and 116 passengers injured when a passenger train hit stationary freight cars – the second deadly incident involving the company in a week.

Officials said the accident happened at around 2.45am close to Columbia, South Carolina, as the passenger train made its way from New York to Miami. Images showed the front engine and that of the freight train wrecked and strewn by the sides of the track.

As it was announced the FBI was helping local police in documenting the scene of the incident, the National Transportation Board (NTSB) said it was launching an investigation. Meanwhile, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster told reporters it appeared the freight train, owned by CSX, was not moving and had no people on board.

“It appears to me that the CSX train was on the track it was supposed to be on. It appears Amtrak was on the wrong track,” he said on Sunday morning.

“I think it will prompt a new conversation around the country. We just cannot have these accidents. We go to great pains to make sure these things do not happen, but occasionally they do.”

Mr McMaster said two people had been killed and 116 injured. He said he visited some of those who were hurt and found them to be in a reasonable mood, considering the situation.

Lexington County coroner Margaret Fisher later identified the two fatalities as Amtrak employees Michael Kempf and Michael Cella. Mr Kempf, 54, of Savannah, Georgia, was the train’s engineer, while Mr Cella, 36, of Orange Park, Florida, was its conductor.

“We should have had a lot more casualties, but we didn’t,” said Ms Fisher.

“When you consider a train that size and how many people were on board, you would expect more fatalities just because they are trains, but God blessed us and we only had the two, not that they were in any diminished because they were very, very hard.”

She said she had been speaking to the men’s relatives. “They are very distraught, very shocked, as anybody would be in this situation. We are working with them to make sure they are taken care of.”

Tom Allen, a South Carolina transportation safety official, told The State it was “probably a switching issue’’ that caused the Amtrak train to run onto the side track.

“Part of the preliminary indications are that it would have to be a switching issue,’’ he said. “It was no derailment caused by a flaw in the track. The Amtrak was on the wrong track.’’

The crash was the third deadly accident involving Amtrak in less than two months. On Wednesday, a train carrying Republican members of Congress to a retreat in West Virginia hit a truck carrying garbage in Virginia, killing a passenger in the truck.

In December, an Amtrak train ran off the rails while travelling on a new route near Tacoma, Washington, killing three people and injuring dozens. At the time, it was moving at nearly 80mph, more than twice the speed limit.

The Associated Press said the latest incident happened near a rail yard about 10 miles south of Columbia, where several track spurs split off for freight cars to be unloaded.

Amtrak officials worked to gather luggage and other belongings and line up buses to take passengers on to their destinations. Those who were not hurt were taken in patrol cars to a shelter, and local businesses stepped in to provide drinks and meals.

“We know they are shaken up quite a bit. We know this is like nothing else they have ever been through. So we wanted to get them out of the cold, get them out of the weather – get them to a warm place,” said sheriff’s spokesman Adam Myrick.

President Donald Trump said on Twitter: “My thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims involved in this mornings train collision in South Carolina. Thank you to our incredible first responders for the work they’ve done.”

Yet others pointed out the pressing need for what they said was a failing infrastructure. Amtrak is partly owned by the US government.

Lawrence Summers, a Harvard economist who served as director of Barack Obama’s National Economic Council, said: “Third major Amtrak accident in two months. Constant infrastructure breakdowns. Rising death rates for the middle aged. USA showing symptoms, like USSR in 1980s, of decay. This, not demonising FBI, should be focus of President Donald Trump and government.”