Three people died and at least 50 people were injured after a 250-person Amtrak train derailed in Mendon, Missouri on Monday. The train, en route from Los Angeles to Chicago, derailed after it hit a dump truck in the rural town 100 miles from Kansas City.
Cpl. Justin Dunn of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a press briefing that the crash occurred at an “uncontrolled crossing,” where there are no signals to alert vehicles that a train is coming. These types of intersections are “pretty common” in rural areas like Mendon, Dunn said.
Eight passenger cars and two locomotives derailed at approximately 1:42 pm. Two passengers on the Amtrak train and a person in the dump truck died following the crash. A Chariton County Ambulance official told ABC News that at least 50 injuries were reported on scene.
“It all happened like slow motion,” Robert Nightingale, who survived the crash, told CNN. “It started to rock and rock, and then flicker, and then it just all of a sudden — all this dust was through my window.”
The National Transportation Safety Bureau announced shortly after the crash that it will launch a 14-person investigation on the incident. It encouraged family members seeking information about their loved ones on the train to reach 800-523-9101.
Two Boy Scout troops were on a railroad car and helped assist people who were hurt, a Boy Scout official told CNN. None of the 16 boys and eight adult leaders were injured.
According to the Associated Press, Monday’s crash was the second Amtrak collision this week. Three people were killed Sunday in the rural Northern California community of Brentwood when an Amtrak commuter train smashed into a car.