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Track cleared, reopened after NC Amtrak crash

Tuesday 10 a.m. update -- Transportation officials say a North Carolina railroad track has been reopened for service after a passenger train collided with a truck stuck trying to turn at a crossing.

A news release Tuesday from Kevin Thompson, associate administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, says equipment from the Amtrak train that crashed has been safely moved. The track was reopened overnight.

Thompson says the owner of the track, CSX, is making repairs to safety equipment at the crossing.

Federal railroad officials are continuing to interview witnesses and review onboard recorders from the train.

The collision Monday afternoon injured at least 54 of the 212 passengers on the train. Thompson says most who were sent to a hospital have been released.

Dozens hurt, travel delayed after Amtrak train crash

HALIFAX COUNTY, N.C. -- An Amtrak passenger train that originated in Charlotte collided with a tractor-trailer in Halifax County, North Carolina.

Federal and state investigators are continuing their investigation into this incident, but said no criminal charges will be filed in this case.

MUST SEE VIDEO: Viewer catches collision on cellphone camera

The collision, which occurred around noon Monday on NC 903 at US 301, toppled the engine on its side and caused several injuries.

Officials said the tractor-trailer got stuck on the tracks while trying to turn on to US 301 north. The driver was trying to reposition the truck, but was hit by the truck.

Amtrak said there were 212 passengers and eight crew members on board when it smashed into the truck about 30 miles north of Rocky Mount.

As result of the collision, 55 passengers were transported to Halifax Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

The remaining 157 passengers were taken to the Halifax Agriculture Complex where they were eventually transported to their respective Amtrak destinations.

Early Tuesday morning the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Train #80 will operate its normal schedule between Charlotte & Raleigh & passengers will transfer to three buses at Raleigh station headed north.

For passengers riding Train #80 today there will be a bus running from Raleigh, Selma, Wilson, Rocky Mount & Petersburg to Richmond.

IMAGES: Amtrak Train collides with tractor-trailer in Halifax, NC

It was the third serious train crash in less than two months. Two deadly crashes in New York and California in February killed a total of seven people and injured 30.

The oversized flatbed trailer involved in Monday's crash was transporting a modular building wrapped in blue plastic and jammed with electrical equipment, said Lt. Jeff Gordon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

CHOPPER VIDEO: Amtrak train from Charlotte collides with truck

The driver of the tractor and trailer has been identified as John Devin Black, of Claremont, and was not injured.

The conductor of the Amtrak train has been identified as Keenan Talley, of Raleigh.

The Amtrak train was the Carolinian, which runs between Charlotte and New York each day.

Amtrack officials told Eyewitness News 89 people boarded the train in Charlotte Monday morning. The train left Charlotte at 7 a.m.

One of the troopers escorting the truck from Clayton, North Carolina, to the Virginia border was trying to help the driver negotiate a difficult left-hand turn across the tracks onto a two-lane highway in the town of Halifax, Gordon said. But the 164-foot tractor-trailer combination, longer than half a football field, couldn't navigate it, he said.

During the five minutes or so the trooper and driver spent attempting to get the truck turned and off the tracks, there was no indication of an approaching train, Gordon said. When the train appeared, it set off warning flashers and the crossing arms came down as the truck was still straddling the tracks, he said. The train hit the truck shortly afterward, Gordon said.

He said the truck was unable to back off the tracks before the train hit because traffic had backed up on the road behind him.

Eyewitness Leslie Cipriani, who was in a car with a friend at a stop sign, heard the sound of the oncoming train and said she saw the crossing arms hit the tractor-trailer.

"I saw him jump out of the truck when he knew he couldn't beat it. ... I heard the train noise and thought, 'Oh, my God, it's going to happen,'" said Cipriani, who shot video of the collision with her cellphone.

State transportation officials said 54 of the injured were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries after Monday's crash. They said one had more serious injuries. Details were not immediately available. Among the injured was the train's conductor, Gordon said.

Federal authorities said they believed 62 people were injured. The discrepancy could not be resolved immediately.

Buses were taking about 170 passengers to Richmond, Virginia, where they could board another train, said state Transportation Department spokesman Mike Charbonneau.

Terrie Faulkner was on an Amtrak train coming to Charlotte when she got a call.

“My daughter called me on my cellphone and asked me was that the train that I was on,” Faulkner said.

“I said, ‘What? Are you for real?’ She said, ‘Yes. Amtrak had a collision on the track’ and I was shocked,” she said.

She said word quickly spread among passengers on her train and many of them became worried about their train.

Aleah Leonard takes the train weekly to see family.

"You always think that can't happen to you, but that just happened on the Amtrak train I take every weekend,” Leonard said.

Steve Pearce was waiting in Richmond for his 22-year-old daughter, Alexis, a Duke University student who boarded the train to visit her father for spring break. Alexis had been in a car accident three weeks ago, her father said. She was "screaming and crying" when she called him Monday, and said a man in her train car was taken away on a gurney because he possibly hurt his back when his seat came loose and twisted in the crash.

Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Michael J. Cole said it appeared that the locomotive and two cars derailed. State transportation officials said one baggage car derailed. The train had one locomotive and seven cars, Cole said. He said the authorized speed for the train is 70 mph, but authorities don't yet know how fast the train was traveling.

At dusk, several undamaged cars from the train sat on the rails waiting for another engine to arrive and pull them away from the site of the crash, which happened just steps from homes and a Baptist church. Bright lights lit up the scene after nightfall as crews worked to remove the derailed cars and the truck. Halifax County Sheriff Wes Tripp said the goal was to reopen the intersection by midnight.

Gordon identified the owner of the tractor-trailer as Guy M. Turner Inc. of Greensboro. A statement on the company's website, later removed, said the company's thoughts and prayers were with anyone who was injured.

Steve Ditmeyer, a former Federal Railroad Administration official who teaches railway management at Michigan State University, looked at the crossing on Google Maps and said the curve of the railroad heading toward the intersection would have made it hard for the engineer to see up ahead, or for the truck driver to see down the track. Furthermore, the tracks don't cross the road at a 90-degree angle.

"This is also known as a bad geometry crossing," he said.

The Amtrak train was the Carolinian, which runs between Charlotte, North Carolina, and New York City each day. It was headed north at the time of the crash.

On Feb. 7 in New York, the driver of an SUV and five train passengers were killed in a collision in Valhalla, about 20 miles north of New York City. That crash happened after the driver of the SUV had stopped on the tracks, between the lowered crossing gates, for reasons still unclear to investigators.

On Feb. 24 in California, the engineer of a Southern commuter train was killed and 30 people were injured when the train struck a heavy pickup truck and trailer that had been abandoned on the tracks in Oxnard, about 65 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Anyone with questions about friends or family aboard the train can call 800-523-9101 for information.


INFORMATION FROM AMTRAK:

Amtrak #79, the southbound Carolinian, was scheduled to arrive in Charlotte at 8:12 p.m. It is being held in Richmond.

Train #79's passengers will be bused to Rocky Mount, Wilson, Selma and Raleigh. Passengers destined for Raleigh and points west will travel to Raleigh on one set of buses.

Passengers for Rocky Mount, Wilson and Selma will travel by another bus.

NC DOT Piedmont equipment will be used to operate a southbound train 79 from Raleigh to Charlotte. Its departure time will depend on the arrival of the bused passengers from Richmond.

At this time we are expecting significant delays for train 79 travelers south of Richmond.

Train 79's train set is being turned in Richmond to go north as a makeup train #80.

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