Amtrak cars derail in Kansas, 31 injured

CARBONDALE, Kan. (AP) -- Sixteen cars of Amtrak's Southwest Chief derailed early today and injured at least 31 people, one of them critically, authorities said. <br><br>The Chicago-to-Los Angeles

Wednesday, March 15th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CARBONDALE, Kan. (AP) -- Sixteen cars of Amtrak's Southwest Chief derailed early today and injured at least 31 people, one of them critically, authorities said.

The Chicago-to-Los Angeles train carrying about 160 passengers went off the track shortly after 2 a.m. in a field near Carbondale, about 15 miles south of Topeka in eastern Kansas.

"We heard a loud noise, we started rocking and went over," said Richard Gray, 51, of Aurora, N.Y., who was in a sleeper car that overturned. "It was kind of eerie when the bottom is up."

All passengers on the 27-car train had been accounted for, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said in Washington. The cause was not immediately known, and personnel from the National Transportation Safety Board were at the scene within five hours.

Six passenger cars, including two sleeper cars, derailed and were lying on their sides. Ten cars carrying mail and other light freight also derailed, Black said.

John Mills, a retired Amtrak district supervisor who was acting as a spokesman for the railroad, said the cars derailed as the train was rounding a "gentle curve" in an area of flat terrain. He said it was going about 60 mph, well within the speed limit for that area.

The train had left Chicago at 3:20 p.m. Tuesday, Amtrak said.

Gray said rescuers reached him and his 92-year-old mother, Dorothy Gray, about 20 minutes after the crash.

"My first thought was, it happened, we derailed," said Gray, a librarian at Cornell University. "But nobody panicked. You keep your head together and try to get out."

Robert Daveler, 19, of Madison, Wis., was in two cars ahead of the cars that derailed. He said he woke up about two minutes before the accident.

"There were three big jerking motions," Daveler said. "It seemed like they hit the brakes real hard and stopped a few seconds later."

Mills said the 31 people taken to hospitals were among 60 in the two sleeper cars. One person was in critical condition at Stormont-Vail Health Care in Topeka, spokeswoman Julie Millard said.

A year ago today, Amtrak's City of New Orleans train slammed into a truck loaded with steel at a crossing in Bourbonnais, Ill., killing 11 people and injuring more than 100 others. The truck driver received a 60-day license suspension after the crash. He told authorities after the crash that he didn't see the train approaching, and claimed the crossing's warning bells, lights and gates activated after he was on the tracks.

Amtrak serves about 21 million passengers a year. In 1997, 234 Amtrak trains were involved in accidents reportable to the Federal Railroad Administration, according to Black. Amtrak has reported 906 crew injuries and 266 passenger injuries, most of them minor and as a result of on-board or workplace mishaps rather than serious train accidents, he said.

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