‘Multiple passenger deaths’ in Amtrak train crash
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS June 25, 2011 12:16PM
Firefighters look at the wreckage of an Amtrak passenger car Friday June 24, 2011 near US 95 north of Fallon, Nev. The west-bound train was struck by a semi-truck and burst into flames. The driver and a passenger of the truck were killed. Injured train passengers were taken to local hospitals but officials must let the wreck cool off before they continue their search. (AP Photo/Liz Margerum - Reno Gazette Journal)
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Updated: June 26, 2011 12:40AM
RENO, Nev. — An Amtrak official Saturday confirmed “multiple passenger deaths” after a semi-trailer truck collided with a Chicago to California Amtrak train in the Nevada desert.
The driver of the truck and a member of the train’s crew were also killed.
Amtrak released a statement confirming “fatalities to passengers” but would not provide additional details.
Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm told the Reno Gazette-Journal that “there were multiple passenger deaths; we just don’t know how many.”
“We know it’s more than one,” he said.
The crash occurred Friday at 11:24 a.m. Pacific Time at a rail crossing about 75 miles east of Reno.
The instability of badly burned cars hindered efforts to recover bodies still on the train Saturday.
At least 20 people were taken to local hospitals.
Skid marks at the rail crossing indicate the driver attempted to brake, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Neither police nor Amtrak identified any of the victims nor released information on their age, gender or hometowns.
National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said late Saturday that 28 passengers who bought tickets for the train are still unaccounted for. But that does not mean there were 28 deaths, he stressed. Some passengers may have bought tickets and did not show up, and people might have left the scene or not checked in, Weener said.
Meanwhile, authorities said they plan to look into the driving and medical records of the semi-trailer driver. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said they also will look at autopsy results to determine whether the driver had consumed any drugs around the time of the collision Friday.
Knudson said federal investigators would make sure that railroad lights and crossing gates were working at the crossing in a rural area about 70 miles east of Reno.
Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez believes the gates and warning lights were working. Witnesses told authorities that the truck didn’t seem to attempt to stop at the crossing when it crashed through the gate. The driver was the sole occupant of the semi, which was hauling two empty gravel trailers.
There were also conflicting reports on how many people were hospitalized.
About 20 people aboard the train were taken to hospitals in Reno and Fallon, but Lopez didn’t know the extent of their injuries. The Chronicle said as many as 100 were taken to hospitals.
Dan Davis, spokesman for Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, said two people were in critical condition, four were in serious condition and three were in fair condition.
“We’re seeing the typical kinds of injuries you see in an accident like this — blunt force trauma, fractures, abrasions, lacerations and internal organ injuries,” Davis told The Associated Press.
Amiee Fulk, spokeswoman for Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, said more than 10 people were treated in its emergency room, but she was unsure whether any were admitted into the facility.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari in Oakland, Calif., said most of the injuries were not life-threatening. He said 204 passengers and 14 crew members were aboard the California Zephyr en route from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., which is about 300 miles west of the crash site.
Amtrak said the other passengers were taken to schools for food and shelter, and that they would make the rest of the trip west on buses.
Passenger Jim Bickley told Sacramento, Calif., television station KXTV that the tractor-trailer hit the fourth car on the train. Another passenger, Abel Ortiz, 42, of San Jose, Calif., said he was sleeping on the side of the car that was struck.
“As I looked up, I saw the train being ripped up. It created an opening in our car,” Ortiz told the Lahontan Valley News & Fallon Eagle Standard newspaper in Fallon. “I saw the flames come over the windows of the side, like a quick flash of flames. Then smoked filled up everything. There was some screaming.”
His 13-year-old son, Aaron, said the flames startled him.
“I thought I was sleeping but I said this isn’t a dream,” he said. “I was scared. On a scale of 1 to 10, this was an 11.”
Monte Mentry, 75, of Sebastopol, Calif., who boarded the train in Salt Lake City, said “the train rocked, and I was bouncing up and down in the seat. Everything in the luggage rack came down.”
The collision occurred on tracks owned by Union Pacific Railroad. It was uncertain how the accident would affect train traffic on the railroad’s main east-west line across Nevada, railroad spokesman Aaron Hunter said. About 20 to 25 freight trains use the line daily.
“It’s too early to know how long this line will be blocked by this incident,” Hunter said. “We have an alternative route to the north, but it takes longer to reach destinations on that route.”
The collision was on a portion of tracks that cross U.S. 95 about three miles south of I-80 in the heart of the Forty-Mile Desert. That was considered one of the most difficult sections of the entire overland journey by California-bound, covered-wagon pioneers in the 19th century.
Contributing: Stefano Esposito, Mike Lansu, Rosemary Sobol and Mitch Dudek
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