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U.S. NEWS Monday 5 February 2018

Amtrak Crash

Continued from Front train from one line to an-
other, Sumwalt said.
CSX issued a statement Amtrak officials gathered
expressing condolences up luggage and other be-
but said nothing about the longings and within hours
cause of the accident. put passengers aboard
Sumwalt said that posi- buses to their destinations.
tive train control — a GPS- Before being sent on their
based safety system that way, those who were not
can automatically slow or hurt were taken to a shelter
stop trains — could have set up at a middle school,
prevented the accident. and local businesses pro-
“That’s what it’s designed vided coffee and break-
to do,” he said, referring to fast.
technology that regulators The dead were identified as
have been pressing for for engineer Michael Kempf,
decades with mixed suc- 54, of Savannah, Georgia,
cess. and conductor Michael
The conductor and engi- Cella, 36, of Orange Park,
neer aboard the Amtrak lo- Florida.
comotive were killed. And “Any time you have any-
116 people were taken to thing that happens like
four hospitals, according to that, you expect more fa-
the governor. talities. But God blessed us,
At least three patients were and we only had the two,”
hospitalized in critical or se- Lexington County Coroner Authorities investigate the scene of a fatal Amtrak train crash in Cayce, South Carolina, Sunday,
rious condition, with nearly Margaret Fisher said, her Feb. 4, 2018. At least two were killed and dozens injured. Associated Press
all the rest treated for minor voice choked with emo-
injuries such as cuts, bruises tion. equipment is now the end tive train control cannot main track.
and whiplash, authorities On Wednesday, a char- of 2018. continue to be delayed. A freight train passing
said. tered Amtrak train carry- After the latest crash, Dem- The worst rail tragedy in re- through went barreling
Palmetto Health emergen- ing Republican members ocratic Sen. Richard Blu- cent South Carolina history down the side track and
cy room doctor Eric Brown of Congress to a retreat menthal of Connecticut took place in 2005 when a slammed into the parked
said so many passengers slammed into a garbage said the nation’s railroads freight engineer parked a train, killing nine people,
were hurt that they were truck in rural Virginia, killing must be made safer, de- train on a side track near most of them millworkers
brought in on two buses, one person in the truck and claring, “Business as usual a textile mill in Graniteville choked by chorine gas
and a tent that had been injuring six others. must end.” He said proven and forgot to flip the switch that leaked from a dam-
set up as a waiting room And on Dec. 18, an Amtrak technology such as posi- back to keep trains on the aged tanker car.q
to keep people separate train ran off the rails along
from flu patients was turned a curve during its inaugural
into a triage area. run near Tacoma, Wash-
The locomotives of both ington, killing three people
trains were left crumpled, and injuring dozens.
the Amtrak engine on its It was going nearly 80 mph,
side. One car in the middle more than twice the speed
of the Amtrak train was limit.
snapped in half, forming With the recent string of
a V off to one side of the crashes, “it’s becoming al-
tracks. most like an epidemic for
“It’s a horrible thing to see, Amtrak,” said Najmedin
to understand the force in- Meshkati, a University of
volved,” the governor said Southern California engi-
after touring the scene. neering professor who has
Investigators recovered a studied positive train con-
camera from the front of trol.
the Amtrak train and were Positive train control is in
looking for the data re- place in the Northeast,
corders from the two trains. but railroads that oper-
The switch that triggered ate tracks used by Amtrak
the crash was found pad- elsewhere in the U.S. have
locked in position, which won repeated extensions
conductors are supposed from the government. The
to do when they move a deadline for installing such

linda.reijnders@cspnv.com