(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Mitch Stacy on July 17.)
TAMPA, Fla. — An Amtrak passenger train collided with a truck and derailed Tuesday, killing the truck driver, authorities said. The train was on the same route as one involved in a fatal accident a day earlier.
The accidents involving the Miami-to-New York Amtrak trains happened under different circumstances and were unrelated, authorities said.
Four people in a car were killed Monday when the driver ignored crossing barriers and drove into the path of a train carrying 161 passengers in Lakeland, about seven miles away from Tuesday’s crash in Plant City.
None of the 133 passengers and 12 crew members aboard the train in Tuesday’s 3:15 p.m. crash was seriously hurt, Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero said.
Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Larry Coggins said 15 people from the train were taken to hospitals. The rest were taken to a nearby bowling alley.
Killed was truck driver Michael Hall, 34, of Plant City. Coggins said he was hauling an industrial trash bin when the crash occurred at a private, marked railroad crossing in an industrial area.
“Witnesses tell us that it was obvious the train was coming, the train was hitting all of its whistles at the appropriate whistle marks,” Coggins said. “The truck drove onto the tracks in front of the oncoming train.”
The train’s two locomotives and nine cars derailed after the collision, but all remained upright, Romero said. Fires ignited by spilled fuel were quickly put out, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Lakeland police said Tuesday that images from a security camera at a nearby warehouse showed that the Pontiac Grand Am in Monday’s crash deliberately drove around barriers at the intersection to try to beat the train.
The victims were identified Tuesday as Cecerra Lee Benafield, 20; Brian Preston Guy, 22; Whitney Pressnell, 20; and Brittany Nichole Stickney, 18. All were from Lakeland, police said.