The national railroad passenger corporation, commonly known as Amtrak, is a passenger rail service providing mid to long-distance intercity rail service to nine cities in the adjoining United States and Canada. On Monday, an Amtrak traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago with 243 passengers on board collided with a dump truck on the outskirts of Missouri and derailed. According to the authorities, it was the second major incident that took place within a two days gap for the passenger railroad services.
Amtrak Train Collides With Dump Truck
At a news conference held on Monday, Cpl. Justin Dunn, public information officer at Missouri State Highway Patrol informed the media that seven of amtrak’s eight cars were derailed. As per the passenger corporation, several cars of Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train fell off the track as a result of a collision with a dump truck at 12.42 pm in Mendon, Missouri, 84 miles northeast of Kansas City.
As of the current reports, Dunn confirmed that the incident has resulted in the death of three people, two on the train and one in the truck. As per Lt. Eric Brown of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the number of injured is not confirmed in the current situation. However, the hospitals have reported more than 40 patients from the accident and are expecting more. He even told the reporters that the crash occurred at an “uncontrolled intersection” with gravel roads. There is no proper lighting or electronic controls here and most of the rural intersections at that place are of the same condition.
According to a local, who does farming on the land near the intersection where the incident occurred, they are much aware that this intersection is so dangerous, mainly for those who drive heavy and slow farm equipment. The access to the track is on a sloping gravel road and it is even difficult for people to see the trains approaching from either direction. The locals here had contacted the State Transportation Officials, Chariton County commissioners, and BNSF Railway to bring their attention to the potential danger of the intersection. The locals even reported that the dump truck driver was hauling rocks for a levy from a local creek, and even said that this project was going on for several days.
The helicopter footage filmed by the KMBC- TV in Kansas City revealed the railroad cars on that side where emergency responders climbed down using ladders. Also, six medical helicopters were parked nearby waiting to transport patients to the hospital. Other than that, around 20 local and state law enforcement agencies, ambulances, fire engines, and medical hospitals responded and came to the rescue.
16 youths and eight adults from two boy scouts heading home to Appleton, Wisconsin, after a backcountry trip at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, were the passengers in the train that went off the track. As per the director of national media relations for the Boy Scouts of America, Scott Armstrong, no one in the group was seriously injured. He even said that the scout even helped in providing first aid to the numerous injured passengers, including the driver of the dump truck.
The collision took place in Missouri on Monday and happened one day after a fatal crash in Brentwood, California. The accident occurred after an amtrak commuter train collided with a vehicle at an unmarked intersection. The accident caused the death of three people in the vehicle and three were injured. And as per the California Highway Patrol, no other passengers of the amtrak were injured.
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