Following Monday’s Amtrak derailment in Missouri that left three people dead and 50 injured, a 15-year-old Boy Scout consoled a dying trucker.
Eli Skrypczak was returning to Wisconsin from a backpacking trip in New Mexico when his train collided with the truck. The young man rushed to help the trucker in his final moments as he passed away.
Dan Skrypczak, Eli’s father and the master of Appleton Troop 73, told the New York Post that he was “pretty upset” and wished he had been able to do more.
The 16 Scouts and the eight adults watching them were not hurt in the collision. The Los Angeles to Chicago Southwest Chief train hit the truck at a crossing while it was carrying them from the Philmont South Ranch to their home in Appleton. The train then left the track.
The chaos that broke out inside the carriages as the train left the tracks was described by survivors of a horrifying collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a dump truck in Missouri.
The eight cars and its two locomotives derailed when they hit the truck, which was obstructing a public crossing, and three people were confirmed dead in the collision—two on the train and one in the dump truck.
The Chariton County Ambulance Service reported that more than 50 people were hurt, at least nine of whom were taken to a University of Missouri Health Care hospital in Columbia with serious injuries.
Rob Nightingale claimed that as the train rocked back and forth, he was drifting off in his sleeper compartment.
‘It was like slow motion. Then all of a sudden I felt it tip my way. I saw the ground coming toward my window, and all the debris and dust,’ Nightingale said.
‘Then it sat on its side and it was complete silence. I sat there and didn’t hear anything. Then I heard a little girl next door crying.’
Nightingale was unhurt in the crash, and he and other passengers were able to climb out of the overturned train car through a window. The collision completely destroyed the dump truck, he said.
‘It was all over the tracks,’ said Nightingale, an art gallery owner from Taos, New Mexico, who said he rides Amtrak regularly to Chicago.
Passenger Dian Couture was in the dining car with her husband celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary when she heard a loud noise and the train wobbled and then crashed on to its side.
‘The people on our left-hand side flew across and hit us, and then we were standing on the windows on the right-hand side of the car,’ Couture told WDAF-TV.
‘Two gentlemen in the front came up, stacked a bunch of things and popped out the window and literally pulled us out by our hands.’
Passengers included 16 youths and eight adults from two Boy Scout troops who were traveling home to Appleton, Wisconsin, after a backcountry excursion at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.
Cheryl Benjamin, a passenger who was on her way home to East Lansing, Michigan when the accident occurred, confirmed the Boy Scouts on board helped her climb out of the train and onto the ground.
She was spending Monday evening in a local high school gym, where community members had brought in food for the passengers as they waited for buses to take them to hotels.
Shocking photos taken in the immediate aftermath of the train wreck show a female passenger being helped out of a window, while others were seen atop overturned cars.
The wreck occurred at 12.42pm CT yesterday, when the Southwest Chief Train 4 collided with a truck that was obstructing a public crossing and came off the tracks near Mendon, Missouri, about 100 miles northeast of Kansas City, Amtrak confirmed to DailyMail.com.
The collision occurred at the uncontrolled Porch Prairie Avenue gravel road crossing, which has no electronic warning devices or gates, officials said.
Amtrak said in a statement there were 243 passengers and 12 crew members aboard at the time of the crash. State troopers said the total number of people on the train may have been lower, but estimated that it was at least 200.
The federal National Transportation Safety Board deployed a 14-member ‘go-team’ to the site of the derailment to investigate, while State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Brown said there was still an ‘active and ongoing investigation at the scene’ yesterday evening, confirming that all the injured had been transported to area hospitals.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement that he was ‘saddened by the tragic loss of life and injuries in the Missouri train derailment today,’ adding that Federal Railroad Administration staff would support the investigation.
‘We ask Missourians to join us in praying for all those impacted,’ Missouri Governor Mike Parson said on Twitter.
Journalist Nylah Burton, who was on a separate Amtrak train set to depart Albuquerque, says she was informed of the possible deaths and injuries by a staff member who came into her car to announce a delay caused by the incident.
She tweeted: ‘An @Amtrak train just derailed in Kansas City (there are likely fatalities but they don’t know all the details) so I’m stuck in Albuquerque tonight because the train can’t go any further.’
A Twitter user called Durand shared the shocking snaps, saying: ‘Oh no.. #Amtrak derailment somewhere in #Missouri.’
Multiple injuries were reported, Amtrak confirmed to DailyMail.com, but no additional information was made public.
Amtrak announced via Twitter that the Southwest Chief Train 3, which was set to leave Chicago, has been postponed. Amtrak requests that customers with impacted travel plans call 1-800-USA-RAIL for additional support.
Call 1-800-523-9101 if you have any concerns about friends and family who were on board the derailed train.
A different Amtrak train collided with a car at a crossing in Brentwood, California, on Sunday afternoon, killing three women and injuring a number of others. The derailment occurred the next day.
According to The Mercury News, three women, all older than 50, were declared dead at the scene of the collision on Sunday.
Around 1pm, according to authorities, the Amtrak train struck the car as it was pulling into a long rural dirt driveway near the intersection of Orwood Road and Bixler Road.
After that, the car veered off the road and collided with another car. In addition, a child, two men, and one other person all required hospitalization due to serious injuries.
Five people were hurt overall, a BNSF Railway spokeswoman told the New York Times, though the exact number is still up for debate.
After the collision on Sunday afternoon, those who were seriously hurt were taken to the John Muir Medical Center, according to ABC News. The child was transported by ground, while one of the adults was airlifted, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
In addition, Battalion Chief Craig Auzenne of the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District told reporters at the scene that none of the 81 passengers or five crew members aboard the train were hurt. The victims were all inside the four-door sedan when it was struck, according to authorities.
In fact, he claimed, the SUV and sedan were colliding when the train stopped a quarter of a mile away.
There is still an investigation going on.
However, according to representatives of the East Contra Costa Fire Department, due to the lack of a traffic guard at that train crossing, they had already been called out twice in the previous year.
‘It’s a bad crossing,’ Steve Aubert, a fire marshal said, noting that trains travel at about 80mph on the tracks.
‘It’s just a recipe for disaster unfortunately.’
In September, a passenger train operated by Amtrak derailed in north central Montana. Three people died.