Three people died on Monday when a train hit a garbage truck and then derailed in a rural area in the central United States, local authorities reported.
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Seven of the approximately eight wagons of An Amtrak train derailed en route from Los Angeles to Chicago when it collided with a garbage truck at a public railroad crossing in the Mendon area of Missouri.
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“There are multiple injuries and we can confirm there are three fatalities, two on the train and one in the dump truck,” Justin Dunn, a spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said at a news conference.
The cars were toppled onto their sides along a farm field as passengers climbed through windows and doors, according to footage posted on social media.
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“Everything happened as if in slow motion. It started rocking and, and rocking, and then flashing, and then all of a sudden (…) all this dust came through my window“Robert Nightingale, who had been sleeping on the train, told CNN.
Locked in his car, he climbed into a hallway before exiting the side of the train, he said, adding that the dump truck appeared to be carrying large rocks. The train was carrying more than 200 passengers and about a dozen crew members when it crossed the intersection on a gravel road that authorities said had no lights or electronic devices to mark the tracks, common in rural areas.
Emergency crews from surrounding counties arrived at the scene and some of the injured were flown to trauma centers by medical helicopters, officials said.
“There are approximately 243 passengers on board with initial reports of injuries.“transport company officials said in a statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board, the US agency tasked with investigating transportation incidents, reported on Twitter that a 14-member team would investigate the derailment.
The accident occurs a day after that another train operated by Amtrak collided with a passenger vehicle at a railroad crossing in California, leaving three people dead.
The intersection involved had no guards, and a local fire official said accidents were not uncommon there, the local NBC affiliate reported.
AFP
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