|
 NTSB Probes Amtrak-Freight Train Crash
Send a link to a friend
[December 01, 2007]
CHICAGO (AP) -- Investigators studying the collision of an Amtrak train and a freight train that injured dozens of people, some seriously, will try to determine how both trains ended up on the same track at the same time, authorities said.
[Caption: A fire truck ladder
extends toward the scene where an Amtrak passenger train plowed into
the back of a freight train on Chicago's South Side, Friday, Nov.
30, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)]
click on picture for larger image
|
|
 Most of the 187 passengers aboard the Amtrak train walked away unhurt after the accident Friday on the city's South Side, which catapulted people from their seats. Four people had to be pulled from the front of the train, where the engine was located, authorities said.
The accident sent 71 people to a dozen hospitals, most of them in stable or good condition, according to the Chicago Fire Department. Three people were expected to be hospitalized overnight, said National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt.
"We're here to find out what happened so we can keep it from happening again," Sumwalt said Friday night.
A team of nine NTSB investigators would conduct interviews with crew members, passengers, dispatchers and supervisors in an investigation that could take months, he said. Officials were also awaiting information from an event recorder, a device similar to the flight recorders on airliners.
The damage to the passenger train was mostly to its engine, where some of the five Amtrak workers aboard were, authorities said. The train's three double-decker passenger cars remained upright.
No one was in the portion of the Norfolk Southern freight train that was struck, and neither of the two workers aboard was hurt.
Amtrak passengers, many of them carrying winter coats and luggage, streamed off the train with the help of rescue workers. Some held the hands of children; others were taken away on stretchers and backboards.
Coert Vanderhill, 60, of Holland, Mich., said the train was approaching the station at 15 to 20 mph when the engine "just ran right up the tail end" of the freight train.
[to top of second column]
 |
 "Everybody just hit the seat in front of them," said Vanderhill, who had a small cut on his nose.
University of Chicago Medical Center spokesman John Easton said none of the 13 patients the hospital received had injuries that appeared to be life-threatening.
Cook County's Stroger Hospital cared for 25 patients, all with minor injuries, spokesman Sean Howard said. At Advocate Christ Medical Center, spokeswoman Deb Song said six of the 10 patients there were to be treated and released, and the rest were in fair or stable condition.
The Amtrak train was en route from Grand Rapids, Mich., to Chicago. The freight train was traveling from Elizabeth, N.J., to Chicago.
Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said he had no details about what caused the accident or what the freight train was carrying.
Amtrak spokesman Derrick James said it was unclear which train was in the wrong place. He said Amtrak shares the track with the track's owner, Norfolk Southern.
He also said he did not know if the freight train was moving or stationary when it was struck.
---
Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.
[Associated
Press; By DEANNA BELLANDI]
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
