KANSAS CITY, Mo. — More than 24 hours later, passengers on board the Amtrak train that derailed on Monday say the experience is becoming more real.
"All day yesterday it was just shock, being surreal, but you know now the more I pictures I see, the more stories I read, the more real it becomes," Jason Drinkard, who was on board the Amtrak, said.
Four people have died from injuries sustained when a Chicago-bound passenger train struck a dump truck at an uncontrolled crossing and derailed in north-central Missouri.
"I guess I still haven't fully processed," said Loralai Kruid, another passenger. "It still feels like I'm telling myself that it actually happened."
Passengers told KSHB 41 they are processing the trauma as they recover from injuries.
"Physically I'm okay, [I have] bumps, bruises, you know, stiffness, but mentally it's starting to set in," Drinkard said.
Drinkard and Kruid were part of a group from Pleasant Ridge High School in Easton, Kansas, traveling to Chicago for an FBLA competition.
Drinkard said friends and family members picked them up and brought them back to Union Station in Kansas City.
One passenger who spoke with KSHB 41 said they kept on, staying overnight at a Quincy, Illinois, hotel before boarding another Amtrak to Chicago.
"That was fine until the train pulled in and was starting to honk the horn, and I was jumping, just jumping," Rob Nightingale, another passenger said. "That was very nerve racking and I had never felt something like that before."
As these passengers recover from minor injuries, they tell KSHB 41 the crash could have been much worse. They say they are grateful to have made it home safely.
"I'm very thankful, I'm very thankful that all 8 of us got to go home last night, no ones in the hospital or worse," Drinkard said.
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