(The following story by Jill Moon and Maggie Borman appeared on The Telegraph website on December 8.)
BRIGHTON, Ill. — A passenger train struck a stalled tractor-trailer and derailed Monday, a first in Macoupin County, miraculously causing only minor injuries to 10 people.
The southbound Amtrak 301 en route from Chicago to St. Louis hit a westbound tractor cab attached to an empty drop-deck trailer that was on the tracks on Miles Station Road, 2 miles north of Brighton, about 11:13 a.m.
“The luggage started coming down,” recalled St. Louisan Lester Simmons, who sat two cars from the front of the train with the food car in between. “People were crying, and I said, ‘Anybody really hurt? Anybody really hurt?'”
Simmons, one of 39 passengers and four crew, had been sitting three rows back from the food car in the passenger car. He said everyone around him replied “no,” they weren’t hurt, but that he was aware someone had suffered a leg injury. Simmons stood outside a charter bus at the Brighton-Betsy Ann Fire Protection District’s station, where 30 passengers were taken from the scene on a Southwestern School District bus.
Macoupin County Sheriff Don Albrecht said the “low-boy” trailer attached to the tractor cab had become stuck on the crossing, and the driver, hearing the approaching train, bolted from the vehicle. The uninjured truck driver was identified as Dustin Kroeschel, 24, of Medora, a town just north of Brighton.
The signals at the crossing were operational, but one of them was knocked down by the crash. Albrecht said he did not know at what speed the Amtrak train was traveling when it struck the trailer.
Albrecht’s department will conduct interviews with all the passengers and crew, as well as the truck driver. He said it could be awhile before an official accident report is complete, because Amtrak, Illinois State Police and, possibly, Pacific Northern also would complete necessary investigative reports.
“The train was going off where I was sitting. I thought it was going to turn over for a minute,” Simmons said. “I’m glad it wasn’t really crowded, or it would have turned over.”
At the firehouse, authorities made sure the travelers received water and collected themselves before boarding the charter bus making stops in Alton and St. Louis.
The injured passengers and the engineer were taken to area hospitals. Five went to Alton Memorial Hospital, three went to Jersey Community Hospital in Jerseyville and two went to Saint Anthony’s Hospital in Alton.
Simmons was returning from Chicago, where he had attended the funeral of his aunt. He said he grabbed his bag and put his head down on it as the train left the tracks.
A young mother, April Bell of Brooklyn, Ill., traveling with her 6-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, cried with relief standing inside the Brighton firehouse.
“We just thank God and give God the glory, because he spared our life,” Bell said with tears streaming down her face. “Thank God. I have two other daughters at home. This could have been really tragic just before the holidays, and we all could have been dead.”
Bell was reading a book when the train struck the trailer.
“I suddenly heard a lot of turbulence. I grabbed my baby,” she recalled. “I looked up, and the train was hanging off the track.”
Only the engine of the five-unit train remained on the tracks. The trailer that was struck by the train was split in two, with the cab remaining near the crossing and the trailer being dragged a couple of hundred feet to the south, authorities said.
“We’ve had a passenger car hit but never a derailment,” said incident commander and Brighton-Betsy Ann Fire Chief Jason Bowman.
Nine ambulances and eight fire apparatuses responded to the scene, including Macoupin County Sheriff’s Department, Illinois State Police, Brighton Police Department, Medora and Shipman fire departments, Alton Memorial Ambulance service, Lifestar, Jersey Community Hospital ambulance service, Medora and Shipman ambulance services.
“All the departments worked together wonderfully, and my impression is we are very, very lucky here (Monday),” Albrecht said. “We had 43 people from the train and the truck driver escape serious injury. Had those train cars gone over on their sides, it would have been very, very serious.”
About 40 first responders were on the scene, including officials with the Macoupin County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency and Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
None of the injuries was believed to be serious.
All the patients taken to Alton Memorial were in stable condition and expected to be released later Monday, spokesman Rusty Ingram said. The two taken to Saint Anthony’s were being evaluated for what appeared to be minor injuries, spokeswoman Diane Schuette said.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said service was going to be disrupted for some time.
One of the crew members, who worked in the train’s beverage car, said he served beverages to the shaken passengers while they were waiting at the scene.
By 1:30 p.m., a fleet of trucks equipped with cranes arrived at the scene to begin the process of removing the cars from the tracks. The trucks were from R.J. Corman Derailment Services.