Amtrak Derailment: At Least 50 Hurt in Montana, Official Says

U.S.|At Least 50 Hurt successful Amtrak Derailment successful Montana, Official Says

At slightest 50 radical were injured aft an Amtrak bid derailed successful Montana connected Saturday afternoon, mounting disconnected a frantic effect by rescuers who scrambled to extricate passengers from cars, an authoritative said.

The official, Amanda Frickel, the catastrophe and exigency services coordinator for Hill County, Mont., said successful an interrogation that much than 1 idiosyncratic had been killed, but that the authorities were not yet releasing immoderate much details.

She said “well over” 50 radical had been injured.

She said the train, which was headed west, derailed conscionable extracurricular Joplin, Mont., which is astir 200 miles northbound of Helena.

She said rescuers from six counties were responding to the country and that arsenic galore arsenic 5 hospitals were connected standby to person injured passengers. There were besides a fig of aesculapian helicopters lasting by, Ms. Frickel said.

“Every region astir is assisting,” said Sheriff Donna Whitt of Toole County, Mont.

Officials had evacuated survivors to 2 abstracted sites and were doing a caput count.

“Everybody who is live has been extricated from the wreck,” Ms. Frickel said.

Amtrak said that 5 cars connected an Empire Builder bid had derailed astatine astir 4 p.m. About 147 passengers and 13 unit members had been onboard, “with injuries reported,” Amtrak said successful a statement.

“Amtrak is moving with the section authorities to transport injured passengers, and safely evacuate each different passengers,” the connection said. “Additional details volition beryllium provided arsenic available.”

Megan Vandervest, who was going to sojourn a person successful Seattle, boarded the bid connected Friday nighttime from Minneapolis, wherever she lives.

On Saturday afternoon, she was dormant successful the archetypal car erstwhile she was jolted awake.

“My archetypal thought was that we were derailing because, to beryllium honest, I person anxiousness and I had heard stories astir trains derailing,” Ms. Vandervest said. “My 2nd thought was that’s crazy. We wouldn’t beryllium derailing. Like, that doesn’t happen.”

She soon figured it out. The car she was successful was afloat connected the tracks.

But the car down hers was tilted over, the 1 down that was wholly tipped over, and the 3 cars down that “had wholly fallen disconnected the tracks and were detached from the train,” she said.

Speaking from the Liberty County Senior Center, wherever passengers were being taken, Ms. Vandervest said she felt fortunate that she and the 3 different radical she was with were not injured.

In her car, she said, it felt similar “extreme turbulence connected a plane.”