An Amtrak train carrying 131 passengers derailed in rural Kansas early Monday morning, moments after an engineer noticed a significant bend in a rail and applied the emergency brakes, an official said.
The crash happened around midnight on Monday involving a train with two locomotives and 10 cars.
According to NTS spokesman Earl Weener, the two locomotives and the first two cars did not derail, but the next two cars derailed and remained upright. The remaining six cars derailed and tipped over.
The train, which also had 14 crew members, was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago when it derailed along a straight stretch of tracks in flat farmland near Cimarron, a small community about 160 miles west of Wichita, Kansas.
Thirty-two people were taken to hospitals for treatment, and nearly all of them had been released by late morning, Amtrak said. One crew member was treated at the scene. The injured included two people who were airlifted to Amarillo, Texas, said Caytie Martin, a spokeswoman for the Northwest Texas Healthcare System.
The tracks belonged to BNSF and are rated in the area for 60 miles per hour operation. Weener believes the train was traveling around that speed when six cars derailed and tipped over.
The first locomotive was equipped with a forward facing camera that is always on but automatically operates when the emergency brake is activated, Weener said. The train also has data recorders that will be reviewed for speed, braking, track condition and crew response.
The NTSB spokesman says the train’s engineer noticed something wrong ahead on the track and hit the brake. The spokesman believes this action prevented things from being even worse.
The track had most recently been inspected on Thursday, March 10, 2016, which is normal policy.
Daniel Aiken, 21, of Lenexa, Kansas, said he heard screaming as he climbed out of an overturned car. He stopped to smell a fluid that was flowing through the car, fearful that it was fuel, but was reassured when he realized it was water.
"Once people realized the train wasn't going to blow up, they calmed down," he said.
"All the lights went out. It was dark," said passenger Daniel Szczerba.. "People traveling in groups (of) four or five got thrown around the car as it turned over and lost people as they were trying to get out of the emergency exits."
The area was foggy at the time, but it was not immediately known if the weather played any role.
Andy Williams, a spokesman for BNSF Railway, which owns the track, said the derailment was not caused by poorly maintained track. He said the track is inspected twice a week and meets Federal Railroad Administration guidelines.
Uninjured passengers were taken to the Cimarron community center to wait for Amtrak to make arrangements to transport them to their destinations.
Wilson said she escaped through the top of the flipped car then slid down the side before she "passed out." She was taken to a hospital and released with a neck brace.
NTSB investigators will be on site to continue the investigation from Washington. NTSB is working with local law enforcement to determine what -- if any -- impact a crash earlier in the evening hin that area may have had on the tracks.
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