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Mother of former Carolina Panther among 116 injured in Amtrak train crash

By Elsa Gillis
By Elsa Gillis

CAYCE, S.C. — One-by-one, family members of the passengers on Amtrak train 91 came to pick up their loved ones and their belongings at a Red Cross reception site.

[RELATED: Officials: Switch turned to force the Amtrak onto a side track and into a parked freight train]

[IMAGES: Amtrak crashes into CSX Freight train]

People there are offering comfort and a warm place to stay for the passengers on the train, many of them coming straight from the hospital.

[Related: A list of recent Amtrak derailments, crashes]

Red Cross officials said they will stay open as long as needed.

Kindel Fakorede said her cousin was one of the 147 passengers aboard the Miamii-bound Amtrak train when it slammed into a CSX freight train in Cayce, South Carolina.

"Mentally and psychologically, it's going to be a while for her,” Fakorede said. “I can see the distress in her eyes. I can hear it in her voice.”

Officials said 54-year old Amtrak engineer Michael Kempf and 36-year-old conductor Michael Cella were killed in the crash.

More than 110 passengers were taken to local hospitals with injuries, from minor cuts to broken bones.

Fakorede said her cousin described what the crash felt like.

"What she said initially, she felt a bump,” Fakorede said. “Then, she nodded off and felt a huge impact, and that second impact that was huge, it lifted the chair from the foundation. She went careening into the chair in front of her, then jerked back, then that chair lifted up and it came plunging at her."

Andre Neblett, a former Carolina Panther, said his mother was on the train.

"I had to rush down there once I got the call, not knowing what to expect,” Neblett told Channel 9. “She had broken legs. I didn't know, that was the scary part."

Neblett said his mother is now out of the hospital.

"We just thank God that she's okay,” he said.

Fakorede said, despite the trauma, she noticed positivity in the hospital.

"Everyone was just supporting each other, thanking God that they were all survivors,” Fakorede said.

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