LAUREL, Ind. — A broken rail caused a holiday train carrying more than 400 people to derail Saturday night on its way to historic Metamora, a popular day trip destination for many Tristate residents, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
More than two dozen people aboard the train were injured, including 10 who were taken to the hospital for treatment and released.
The 14-car train should be running again by this weekend, railroad officials said Sunday.
Even though the train was moving about 12 miles per hour, the first three cars of the sold-out train derailed about 7 p.m. while traveling from Connersville along the banks of the old Whitewater Canal, just south of Laurel in Franklin County.
Two of the three cars slid 5 to 10 feet from the tracks and tipped at an angle. One fell against a tree, keeping it from overturning and plunging some 30 to 40 feet below to the canal.
“I thought we were going to die,” said Matilda Gibson, 45, of Milan, Ind., who was riding in the first car with her husband and relatives.
“We were just sitting there talking and all of a sudden we felt a thump and a jerk, and then it just tipped over in slow motion,” she recalled. “The only thing that was holding us up from sliding down the canal bank was a tree. I thought we were going to go into the water. Thank God for the tree. I’m not going to ride trains no more.”
Federal Railroad Administration investigators determined Sunday the cause of the derailment was a broken rail on Whitewater Valley Railroad, a sightseeing rail line where trains travel at a maximum speed of 15 mph.
The rail broke as the train crossed over it, said Estill Day, vice president of the railroad, a non-profit agency run by volunteers that has maintained the system and train since 1976.
The railroad’s last derailment, a minor one, was about three years ago in another section of the 16ýmile route, he said.
“It’s an unfortunate accident and we hope it doesn’t happen all the time,” Mr. Day said. “It’s a risk we take every time we run, but we think we have a good record and a safe railroad.”
The Whitewater Valley Railroad train operates on weekends from Thanksgiving through Christmas, and from May to October for summertime shopping, events and school tours.
The train was destined for Metamora’s annual Christmas Walk. The four-weekend event attracts about 200,000 tourists annually to more than 100 country-themed shops and turn-of-the-century attractions.
In addition to the 90-minute train ride, people can watch a working gristmill, take horse-drawn carriage rides, and cruise a canal boat through the last wooden aqueduct in the United States.
“They bring a lot of business,” said Marilyn Buening of Quality Plus, an antique shop. “You can definitely see a change in business when the train doesn’t run.”
Railroad officials weren’t sure Sunday what caused the rail break. Mr. Day said he did not know how old the broken rail was.
The south end of the tracks, where the derailment occurred, had been rebuilt about two or three years ago, Mr. Day said. The tracks are inspected once a week and regularly maintained, he said.
The rails date back to the early 1900s, according to engravings visible on the snow-covered tracks Sunday.
The train’s engine was built in the 1950s and the passenger cars were constructed in 1930 in Chicago, Mr. Day said.
The train derailed in the middle of a rural area operated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Volunteers arrived in buses to take passengers to shelter at nearby Laurel Elementary School.
Ten passengers with minor injuries were treated and released by Sunday morning, said Scott Briner, spokesman at Fayette Memorial Hospital in Connersville.
Though most passengers crawled to safety, at least one, Mrs. Gibson’s husband, Jimmy, 53, was trapped in the first car.
He couldn’t move after re-injuring his back in the derailment. Paramedics had to smash out a window to rescue him.
Doctors held him for observation overnight at the hospital because he had his gall bladder removed three weeks ago and a hernia operation. Mr. Gibson’s brother-in-law, Tim Bentle, stayed inside the car with him.
“A lot of people had cuts and bruises and were banged up,” Mr. Bentle, 44, of Milan, said. “There were some kids in the cars who were pretty scared, but everyone else was pretty calm about it. At first we thought, `Is this thing going off the track or is it just a real rough track?'”
He was riding on the high side of the first car when it tipped, sending him and his wife crashing onto Mrs. Gibson and her husband. In the accident, Mr. Bentle gashed his lower left leg badly enough to require eight stitches.
“As it continued to flip over, we thought, `No, this isn’t right. This isn’t good,'” Mr. Bentle said. “I’m sure glad those trees were there to keep us from going over.
“But I would get right back on the train if they invited us back. I would like to finish the ride. It was just an unfortunate situation last night. It could have happened at any time.”
Metamora merchants on Sunday said they hoped the wreck wouldn’t keep people away during the busiest shopping season of the year.
“It’s not a good thing for us at all, kind of a black mark against us even though we have nothing to do with it,” said Al Rogers, 64, who has owned Mark Twain Antique Shop in Metamora since 1970. “Train derailments are kind of a common thing anymore across the country for some reason. But this train goes so slow.”
Passengers and police said the wreck easily could have been worse.
“We were very, very lucky,” Indiana State Police Cpl. Jim Carney said.