Amtrak derailment: Mother and aunt among four dead as Boy Scouts recall bloody scene in Missouri

The train was on its way to Chicago from Los Angeles when the accident occurred

Train carrying 243 passengers derails near Kansas City, Missouri

A woman’s mother and aunt from Olathe, Missouri, have been identified by family as being among the four people killed when an Amtrak train derailed in Kansas City, Missouri, according to local news outlet KSHB.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said three passengers died and the driver of a dump truck that collided with the Los Angeles to Chicago passenger train were among the dead, who have not been named.

Investigtors are currently at the scene of the crash in Mendon and the railroad is expected to remain closed for a matter of days following the collision at railroad crossing on Monday afternoon.

Amtrak, which confirmed 275 passengers and 12 crew members were on board the Southwest Chief intercity train, said it is “deeply saddened” to learn about the deaths of the passengers and the truck driver and that is cooperating with investigators.

The incident was the second in two days for Amtrak after three people were killed and two others suffered severe injuries when a train carrying 85 passengers hit a vehicle in rural California.

Key points

• Mother and aunt among dead, family say
• Boy Scout passengers recall seeing bloody scene
• Farmer warned about crossing safety before crash
• Aerial footage shows train tipped on its side

[27 June 2022 23:45 · Io Dodds]

Aerial footage shows train tipped on its side

Here’s an aerial photo of the crossing where the dump truck was hit courtesy of KSHB 41 News.

Other aerial news footage showed the train itself, tipped over on its side, its starboard flank turned into an impromptu floor for the passengers and rescuers.

[28 June 2022 00:17 · Io Dodds]

Photos from the wreckage

Dax McDonald, a software developer who was a passenger on the train, posted these photos from the crash site.

In one of them, a huge pair of wheels on their axle – seemingly from the dump truck, since they have tires – lies twisted on the tracks.

Another shows passengersr and rescuers climbing on the side of the train's carriages, pulling people out of the now upward-pointing doorways all along the length of the train.

According to Mr McDonald, the rescued passengers have been given shelter at Northwestern High School near Mendon.

[28 June 2022 00:52 · Io Dodds]

At least 13 victims in hospital

At least 13 of the injured victims have been taken to hospital, according to ABC News.

Hendrick Medical Center in Chillicothe, Missouri, said that it had accepted four patients from the scene, while the University of Missouri Health Care hospital in Columbia said that it was treating nine patients as of around 4pm local time.

[28 June 2022 01:49 · Io Dodds]

Investigators request camera and speed data from Amtrak

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said it will send a 16-member "go team" to investigate the derailment in person, expected to arrive at the scene tomorrow.

In a news conference this evening, NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, who will be part of the team, said the agency is requesting speed data from along the route and on-board recorder logs and camera footage from the train.

“With the team, we’ll have specialists from mechanical, from signal systems from operations and survival factors,” she said. “We'll have a highway person, a drone operator, and some team members from NTSB’s Office of Transportation Disaster Assistance to work with survivors and families of those who were involved in the derailment.”

The NTSB is a federal agency that investigates transport accidents, and has probed previous Amtrak derailments in Montana in 2021 and Washington state in 2019.

Those reports don’t always shed much light. In the 2021 accident, the NTSB concluded that the train was equipped with an automatic braking system that was properly switched on, but offered no clues on what exactly caused the tragedy.

[28 June 2022 02:55 · Io Dodds]

Kansas City mayor makes statement

Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, has addressed the tragedy on Twitter.

"Having relied on Amtrak to cross our state throughout my college years and long after, I remember the ride well.

"My heart goes out to the passengers and all impacted by today's event, and I extend my thanks to those responding to today's derailment on the scene and at the hospital."

[28 June 2022 04:01 · Io Dodds]

'Looks like we're gonna be late to Chicago'

ABC News has released video footage shared by a person involved in the crash, showing passengers sitting on top of the fallen train.

"Well, looks like we’re gonna be late to Chicago," says the person filming the video, appearing breathless and possibly distraught. "We hit a truck. Someone was crossing the tracks."

[28 June 2022 04:31 · Shweta Sharma]

Hero teacher on first ever Amtrak trip helps rescue passengers in Missouri derailment

Jason Drinkard, who was travelling with his students and his wife to Chicago in the train that derailed, tells The Independent’s Josh Marcus that it was chaos as people “were bleeding and were banged up”.

“My kids were super stoked about this,” he said. “As they got closer and closer, you could feel the excitement building. We were talking about what restaurants we were gonna go to, what sights we were going to see.”

Then he heard the jolt.

“I looked out the left window and you just see this cloud of brown dust,” he said. “The next thing you know, you feel the car start tipping. Once it went over, it was one of those, you think, I can’t believe this is actually happening. For me everything was just in slow motion until it came to a rest.”

Read the full report.

[28 June 2022 04:50 · Shweta Sharma]

Missouri state highway patrol says investigation in preliminary stages

The Missouri state highway patrol said in a detailed statement that first responders started to arrive at approximately 1.02pm.

“Preliminary investigation indicates an Amtrak passenger train traveling to Chicago, Illinois, struck a dump truck at the railroad crossing on Porche Prairie Avenue,” it said.

“The train had approximately 8 cars, including a baggage car. Seven cars have derailed. There are multiple injuries and we can confirm there are 3 fatalities 2 on the train and 1 in the dump truck.”

“Personnel are currently working to secure the scene. The train had approximately 207 passengers and crew members. All injured and uninjured occupants of the train have been transported from the scene,” it added.

[28 June 2022 05:06 · Io Dodds]

'I thought, that guy had better slow down'

Dax McDonald, the software engineer from Phoenix, Arizona who survived the derailment, told the Washington Post more details about his experience.

He said he had been travelling from Flagstaff, Arizona to Iowa with his mother and two sisters to meet up with other family for the Fourth of July.

The trio had decided to take a train rather than a plane due to the soaring cost of fuel. They were riding in the second last carriage when everyone was jolted forward with a loud bang.

“The real insanity happened a second after that. You could see it start to tip... I basically looked over to see [my two sisters] careening toward me," he said. His mother had been in the bathroom and had to climb on suitcases to escape.

Afterwards the carriage was full of broken glass and gravel. One woman hit her head and had a seizure, requiring help from Mr McDonald and others. Then they began to clamber out of the windows, now facing upwards.

Mr McDonald also shed some light on the circumstances of the derailment, saying that he saw two trucks through the train's windows approaching the rails. "This guy had better slow down," he thought about one of them.

[28 June 2022 05:10 · Shweta Sharma]

NTSB investigators say trains won’t run on track for days

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said trains won’t be able to run on the track for “a matter of days” while the investigators gather evidence.

She said it was too early to speculate on why the truck was on the tracks.