NTSB investigators look into fatal Missouri Amtrak accident

MENDON, Mo. (AP) — Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were in Missouri Tuesday trying to determine how an Amtrak train carrying more than 200 people slammed into a dump truck, killing two train passengers and the truck driver.

Amtrak’s Southwest Chief was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago Monday afternoon when it struck a dump truck and derailed at the crossing near Mendon. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were hurt but hospitals near the western Missouri accident scene reported receiving more than 40 patients from the crash.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the train was carrying about 207 passengers and crew, but Amtrak said in a statement there were 275 passengers and 12 crew. The disparity could not immediately be resolved.

The collision derailed seven cars, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The truck was broken into pieces.

The crossing in a rural area about 84 miles (135 kilometers) northeast of Kansas City has no lights or other signals to warn of an approaching train, and local residents have complained that the overgrowth of brush and the steep incline from the road to the tracks makes it hard to see oncoming trains from either direction.

Rob Nightingale of Taos, New Mexico, said he was dozing off in his sleeper compartment when the lights flickered and the train rocked back and forth.

“It was like slow motion. Then all of a sudden I felt it tip my way. I saw the ground coming toward my window, and all the debris and dust,” Nightingale told The Associated Press. “Then it sat on its side and it was complete silence. I sat there and didn’t hear anything. Then I heard a little girl next door crying.”

Nightingale was unhurt and he and other passengers were able to climb out of the overturned train car...