At least 3 killed in Amtrak derailment in Montana

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, an authoritative with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office said.

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 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) northbound of Helena and astir 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the borderline with Canada.

The bid had astir 146 passengers and 16 unit members onboard, Abrams said.

The bid consisted of 2 locomotives and 10 cars, with 7 of those cars derailing, helium said.

Megan Vandervest, a rider connected the bid 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 over, the 1 down that was wholly 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 passengers were being taken, Vandervest said it felt similar “extreme turbulence connected a plane.”

Amtrak was moving with the section authorities to transport injured passengers and safely evacuate each different passengers, Abrams added.

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.

Five Amtrak cars derailed astir 3:55 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time and nary different trains oregon instrumentality were involved, Weiss said. The bid was traveling connected a BNSF Railroad main way astatine the time, helium said.

Photos posted to societal media showed respective cars connected their sides. Passengers were 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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Associated Press Tom Krisher contributed to this report.