At least 3 dead in Amtrak train derailment in Montana

By AMY HANSON and TAREK HAMADA

JOPLIN, Mont. (AP) — At slightest 3 radical were killed Saturday day erstwhile an Amtrak bid that runs betwixt Seattle and Chicago derailed successful north-central Montana, toppling respective cars onto their sides, authorities said.

The westbound Empire Builder bid derailed astir 4 p.m. adjacent Joplin, a municipality of astir 200, Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams said successful a statement. The mishap country is astir 150 miles (241 kilometers) northeast of Helena and astir 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the borderline with Canada.

Liberty County sheriff’s dispatcher Starr Tyler told The Associated Press that 3 radical died successful the derailment. She did not person much details. Amtrak said successful a connection that determination were aggregate injuries.

The bid had astir 141 passengers and 16 unit members onboard, Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams said. The bid had 2 locomotives and 10 cars, 8 of which derailed, helium said.

“We are profoundly saddened to larn section authorities are present confirming that 3 radical person mislaid their lives arsenic a effect of this accident,” Abrams said.

Megan Vandervest, a rider who was going to sojourn a person successful Seattle, told The New York Times that she was awakened by the derailment.

“My archetypal thought was that we were derailing because, to beryllium honest, I person anxiousness and I had heard stories astir trains derailing,” said Vandervest, who is from Minneapolis. “My 2nd thought was that’s crazy. We wouldn’t beryllium derailing. Like, that doesn’t happen.”

She told the Times that the car down hers was tilted, the 1 down that was tipped over, and the 3 cars down that “had wholly fallen disconnected the tracks and were detached from the train.”

Speaking from the Liberty County Senior Center, wherever immoderate passengers were being taken, Vandervest said it felt similar “extreme turbulence connected a plane.”

Residents of communities adjacent the clang tract rapidly mobilized to assistance the passengers.

Chester Councilwoman Rachel Ghekiere said she and others helped astir 50 to 60 passengers who were brought to a section school.

“I went to the schoolhouse and assisted with water, food, wiping ungraded disconnected faces,” she said. “They appeared to beryllium tired, shaken but blessed that they were wherever they were. Some looked much disheveled than others, depending wherever they were connected the train.”

A market store successful Chester, astir 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the derailment, and a adjacent spiritual assemblage provided food, she said.

The passengers were taken by buses to hotels successful adjacent Shelby, said Ghekiere, whose hubby works for the section exigency services bureau and was alerted to the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board volition nonstop a 14-member team, including investigators and specialists successful railroad signals and different disciplines, to analyse the crash, spokesperson Eric Weiss said.

Weiss said the derailment occurred astir 3:55 p.m. and nary different trains oregon instrumentality were involved. The bid was traveling connected a BNSF Railway main way astatine the time, helium said.

Photos posted to societal media showed obstruction cars connected their sides and passengers lasting alongside the tracks, immoderate carrying luggage. The images showed sunny skies, and it appeared the mishap occurred on a consecutive conception of tracks.

Amtrak said that due to the fact that of the derailment, the Sunday westbound Empire Builder volition terminate successful Minneapolis, and the Sunday eastbound Empire Builder bid volition originate successful Minneapolis.

Other caller Amtrak derailments include:

— April 3, 2016: Two attraction workers were struck and killed by an Amtrak bid going much than 100 mph successful Chester, Pennsylvania. The pb motor of the bid derailed.

— March 14, 2016: An Amtrak bid traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago derailed successful southwest Kansas, sending 5 cars disconnected the tracks and injuring astatine slightest 32 people. Investigators concluded that a cattle provender transportation motortruck deed the way and shifted it astatine slightest a ft earlier the derailment.

— Oct. 5, 2015: A rider bid headed from Vermont to Washington, D.C., derailed erstwhile it deed rocks that had fallen onto the way from a ledge. The locomotive and a rider car spilled down an embankment, derailing 3 different cars and injuring 7 people.

— May 12, 2015: Amtrak Train 188 was traveling astatine doubly the 50 mph velocity bounds arsenic it entered a crisp curve successful Philadelphia and derailed. Eight radical were killed and much than 200 were injured erstwhile the locomotive and 4 of the train’s 7 rider cars jumped the tracks. Several cars overturned and ripped apart.

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Hamada reported from Phoenix. Associated Press Tom Krisher successful Detroit contributed to this report.