Amtrak President Richard Anderson says the signal system run by a private railroad was down when one of his passenger trains slammed into the rear of a parked freight train carrying automobiles on a side track in South Carolina, killing two workers.
Amtrak’s Silver Star was on its way from New York to Miami with eight crew members and about 140 passengers around 2:45 a.m. when it plowed into the CSX train at an estimated 59 mph, Gov. Henry McMaster said. The wreck took place around a switchyard about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Columbia
Anderson said dispatchers at CSX were manually routing trains around 2:45 a.m. Sunday. He says he would defer to National Transportation Safety Board investigators to determine what role that played in the wreck that also sent 116 people to the hospital, most with minor injuries.
Speaking in a phone conference call with reporters, Anderson says the crash of the train heading from New York to Miami shows why the U.S. needs to install GPS-based technology called positive train control _ by year's end.
The system is in place in the Northeast, but Anderson says private companies who run the tracks Amtrak uses elsewhere have in the past asked for extensions to deadlines.
So many passengers were injured in a South Carolina that an emergency room doctor says they were brought in on two buses.
Palmetto Health emergency room doctor Eric Brown said the hospital quickly changed a tent they were using as a waiting room to keep people away from patients with the flu into a triage area to diagnosis the injured Sunday.
Amtrak says train company CSX is responsible for maintaining signals, switching and the scheduling of trains along tracks in South Carolina where a passenger train struck a parked freight train.
The engineer and conductor of the passenger train were killed early Sunday morning in the crash near Cayce and 116 were taken to the hospital, most with minor injuries.
Amtrak said in a statement it is co-operating with the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the crash and the company was deeply saddened by the deaths of its employees.
CSX didn't immediately return an email and phone call Sunday.
No one was on board the CSX freight train, which South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster says was parked on a side track.
Drone footage showed the locomotives of both trains crumpled, the Amtrak engine on its side. One car in the middle of the Amtrak train was snapped in half, forming a V off to the side of the tracks.
“It’s a horrible thing to see, to understand the force involved,” McMaster said after touring the scene.
Many passengers were asleep with the train began shaking violently and then slammed to a halt, passenger Derek Pettaway told CBS.
“You knew we’d hit something or we’d derailed,” he said.
Elliot Smith told The State newspaper of Columbia that he was staying with a friend when they heard what sounded like a propane tank exploding.
“The sound was so loud, you instantly knew it was bad,” he said. Smith said he and his friend saw passengers limping along the tracks, while others tried to get everyone out of the cars.
Amtrak officials gathered up luggage and other belongings and within hours put passengers aboard buses to their destinations. Before being sent on their way, those who were not hurt were taken to a shelter, and local businesses provided coffee and breakfast.
“We know they are shaken up quite a bit. We know this is like nothing else they have ever been through. So we wanted to get them out of the cold, get them out of the weather — get them to a warm place,” sheriff’s spokesman Adam Myrick said.
On Wednesday, a chartered Amtrak train carrying Republican members of Congress to a strategy retreat slammed into a garbage truck at a crossing in rural Virginia, killing one person in the truck and injuring six others.
And on Dec. 18, an Amtrak train ran off the rails along a curve during its inaugural run on a route south of Tacoma, Washington, killing three people and injuring dozens. It was going nearly 80 mph, more than twice the speed limit.