55 injured in New York-bound Amtrak train derailment in North Carolina: report
BY DOYLE MURPHY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, March 9, 2015, 2:38 PM
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A New York-bound Amtrak train slammed into a tractor-trailer and veered off the tracks, injuring at least 55 people on Monday in North Carolina.
The tractor-trailer appeared to be stalled on the tracks as the Carolinian barreled north through Halifax, video of the crash showed.
The passenger train cut through the trailer, spraying a cloud of dust and debris across the rail bed as the lead cars derailed.
Witnesses who filmed the collision on a cell phone said the driver seemed to be stuck on the tracks while trying to make a turn.
"That guy better get the hell out of that truck," one of the witnesses can heard saying as the engine approached.
"Oh, my God! Oh my God," another said as the train cut through the trailer in a cloud of dust.
ERIN CARSON/APTrain passenger Alyssa Coleman (r) and her little sister, Viara Hinton, are helped off of a derailed Amtrak train by workers on Monday in Halifax County, N.C.
The engine derailed and flipped onto its side. A luggage car and passenger car also derailed but stayed upright, ABC 11 reported.
At least one person was hurt badly, authorities said. Another 54 were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
The train is called the Carolinian and runs daily from North Carolina to New York.
Witness Leslie Cipriani, who recorded the cell phone video of the crash, said the truck driver struggled to get across the tracks and bailed as the crossing arm came down on the tractor-trailer.
"I saw him jump out of the truck when he knew he couldn’t beat it." she said. "I heard the train noise and thought, oh my God, it’s going to happen."
ABC11Several people were injured on Monday when an Amtrak train collided with a tractor-trailer and derailed in Halifax, N.C.
Passengers reported a jolt during the noon collision in Halifax.
“There was a massive jerk and we were kind of thrown forward a little bit, and the train came to a sudden stop," passenger Charlotte Story told WRAL. "I couldn't tell you if it was trying to slow down or not. There was no whistle. It came completely out of the blue."
A child sitting next to her in the seventh car was tossed from her seat but wasn’t hurt, she said.
“There was a little girl behind me, and since the trains don't have seat belts, she was completely thrown out of her chair," Story told WRAL.
New York Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, who is pushing a federal rail safety bill, called for better preventative measures.
ABC11An Amtrak train collided with a tractor-trailer truck on Monday in Halifax, N.C.
"It shouldn’t take tragedy after tragedy for us to act on commonsense improvements at dangerous rail crossings, and until we do, these preventable accidents will continue to be everyday occurrences," Maloney said.
The National Transportation has begun gathering information, the agency said on Twitter.
