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
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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.
Derailment ‘was going to happen’, local farmer says
A farmer who warned authorities and other Missouri residents of the apparent dangers of the railroad crossing where an Amtrak train derailed on Monday has said it was “a matter of time” before such an incident occurred.
Mike Spencer, 64, said in an interview with the Kansas City Star that promises to upgrade the crossing – which does not have signals or lights – had fallen flat. Nor had the brush been cut back to improve visibility.
A second farmer, 62-year-old Daryl Jacobs, agreed and said: “It needs arms on it or signals”.
Farmer warned deadly Amtrak derailment in Missouri ‘was going to happen’
Local resident had called for improvements
NTSB investigators on site
The National Transportatation Safety Board (NTSB) are leading the investigation into the Amtrak derailment near Mendon, Missouri, and were expected to have investigators at the scene on Tuesday,
Jennifer Homendy, the chairwoman of the NTSB, told reporters that no trains will run on the track for “a matter of days” while they gather evidence.
Trains pass crossing at ‘up to 90mph'
Missouri farmer and local resident Mike Spencer said trains pass though the crossing where the Amtrak derailment occurred at speeds between 45 and 90mph.
While it was unclear at what speed Monday’s derailed Amtrak service was travelling at, a video reportedly posted by Mr Spencer to Facebook earlier this month showed a train “only moving at approximately 45-50 but some come through at anywhere from 70-90 mph,” he wrote.
“If you cross here with a vehicle, stop, approach very slowly, then look both ways. There are two tracks and around 85 trains go through there every day,” the 64-year-old added in an apparent warning to others, according to the Kansas City Star.
Crossing was due to be improved
The crossing where an Amtrak train derailed on Monday is among a number of railroad infrastructure locations to be improved, the Kansas City Star reports.
Located in a rural area about 84 miles northeast of Kansas City, the crossing from the collision has no lights or other signals to warn of an approaching train, which local residents and farmers have complained of.
It remains unclear when improvement works were due to begin.
Only about half of all the roughly 3,800 highway-railroad crossings across Missouri are equipped which alarms and other features, the Star said, citing a local action plan.
Missouri’s Department of Transportation’s Office of Multimodal Operations controls rail in the state.
Breaking: Fourth person dies
A fourth person has died from injuries suffered in an Amtrak train derailment in Missouri, authorities say. The patrol said the person died at University of Missouri Health Center, where some of the injured form Monday’s collision were taken.
The person, whose identity was not released, was passenger on the train travelling from LA to Chicago, the Associated Press reported.
Two other passengers and the driver of a truck were earlier confirmed to have died.
Missouri’s state highway patrol said on Tuesday that the fourth person to die following the derailment had died of their injuries.
They were among about 150 people taken from the train to nearby hospitals, where people are thought to be receiving treatment for minor and serious injuries sustained when their Amtrak train collided with a dump truck near Mendon.
Here’s everything we know so far:
Fourth person dies following Amtrak derailment in Missouri
State highway patrol says person was third passenger to die
Killed truck driver was working locally
The driver of the drump truck which collided with an Amtrak train carrying 275 passengers on Monday was working on a local infrastructure project, according to local resident and farmer Mike Spencer.
He said the driver had been delivering rock to a nearby project on a creek where a levy is being built, which had been going for a couple of days, according to the Associated Press.
Another farmer, 62-year-old Daryl Jacobs, told the Kansas City Star the driver appeared to “stall” on a ramp leading up to the railroad crossing before the vehicle ended-up on the tracks. That remains to be confirmed by investigators.
Derailment ‘was going to happen’, local farmer says
A farmer who warned authorities and other Missouri residents of the apparent dangers of the railroad crossing where an Amtrak train derailed on Monday has said it was “a matter of time” before such an incident occurred.
Mike Spencer, 64, said in an interview with the Kansas City Star that promises to upgrade the crossing – which does not have signals or lights – had fallen flat. Nor had the brush been cut back to improve visibility.
A second farmer, 62-year-old Daryl Jacobs, agreed and said: “It needs arms on it or signals”.
Farmer warned deadly Amtrak derailment in Missouri ‘was going to happen’
On Monday, three people were killed and 50 injured when an Amtrak train hit a dump truck at a railroad crossing
Two passengers were celebrating wedding anniversary
At least one couple onboard the Amtrak train which collided with a dump truck near Mendon, Missouri, were celebrating a wedding anniversary when the derailment occurred.
Dian Couture was in the dining car with her husband celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary when she heard a loud noise and the train wobbled and then crashed onto its side, the Associated Press reported.
“The people on our left-hand side flew across and hit us, and then we were standing on the windows on the right-hand side of the car,” she told WDAF-TV. “Two gentlemen in the front came up, stacked a bunch of things and popped out the window and literally pulled us out by our hands.”
Amtrak confirmed that 275 passengers were riding the Los Angeles to Chicago service when it derailed. Three paassengers were among the four people killed.
Most railroad crossings are in rural Missouri
A draft action plan to improve railroad crossings in Missouri names the crossing where an Amtrak train derailed on Monday, killing four people and injuring 50 more.
Here’s what we know about railroad crossings from that document:
- Around 70 per cent of public crossings are located in rural areas of Missouri
- Less than 50 per cent of public crossings do not have active warning devices
- There are about 3,800 above ground public crossings in the state
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