The Amtrak train was on its way from New York to Miami and it collided with a Freight Train in South Carolina near Charleston Highway and Pine Ridge Road, in Cayce. Two persons, identified as personnel of Amtrak, have been killed and 116 are injured in the Accident.
Sky News reports that the company has confirmed the accident. It was Amtrak Train 91 traveling between New York and Miami and it struck a CSX freight train early in the morning near Cayce, South Carolina. The train was carrying eight crew members and approximately 139 passengers. The number of injured is 116 and they have been hospitalized.
This is not the first accident
The collision of this Amtrak train is the fifth crash this year and the fourth that has led to deaths or injuries. It comes shortly after one of its trains collided with a bin truck in Virginia. The train was carrying several Republican politicians along with US House speaker Paul Ryan. The collision led to the death of one person and injuries to six, one of them being a congressman.
NY Daily News adds that one of the dead was an engineer of Amtrak. He was an Army veteran who had seen action in South Korea and Panama where he worked as a tank driver. The other person who died was the conductor. It seems the train had slammed into a parked freight train which was loaded with about 5,000 gallons of diesel.
Fortunately, the spill did not pose any threat to the public.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said federal investigators will go into details of the accident but, from available evidence, it appears that the Amtrak was on the wrong track.
Amtrak trains and accidents
Amtrak operates a nationwide rail network and caters to more than 85,000 passengers every day.
During the period 2014 to 2017, it has seen at least 26 derailments. This is according to a report in Fox News. These accidents were attributed to human factors like over speeding on curve sections or lack of concentration of the man at the controls.
The latest accident is, prima facie, believed to be a case of Amtrak 91 moving on the wrong track which is why it rammed into the stationary freight train.
The train is a mass transit system and those who travel by this mode of transport pose their trust in operators like Amtrak expecting a safe ride to their destination. However, accidents shake their confidence and the operators must take corrective action. They must be more vigilant to ensure that the rides are incident free and safe.
