32 injured as Amtrak derails in Kansas
Print Edition
A PASSENGER train derailed overnight in a rural area of southwestern Kansas, injuring at least 32 people, officials said yesterday.
The Amtrak train was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago when it left the tracks just after midnight near Cimarron, a small community about 257 kilometers west of Wichita. Eight cars derailed, four of which ended up on their sides, the company said in a statement.
Daniel Aiken, 21, of Lenexa, Kansas, who was traveling with Wilson, said he heard screaming as he climbed out of their overturned car. He stopped to smell a fluid that was flowing through the car, fearful that it was fuel, but was reassured when he realized it was water. “Once people realized the train wasn’t going to blow up,” he said, “they calmed down.”
Passenger Daniel Szczerba described the chaos for Wichita TV station KWCH.
“All the lights went out, it was dark,” passenger Daniel Szczerba told Wichita TV station KWCH. “People traveling in groups (of) four or five got thrown around the car as it turned over and lost people as they were trying to get out of the emergency exits.”
Thirty-two people were taken to hospitals for treatment, including 29 who were released later that morning, the railroad said. Ashley Rogers, a spokeswoman for Grey County, said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
The derailment happened along a straight stretch of track. A government official said an engineer noticed a significant bend in a rail ahead and hit the emergency brakes before the train derailed. The US official, who was briefed on the investigation, said the train appeared to have been traveling at about 121 kilometers when the engineer pulled the emergency break.
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