(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Joedy McCreary on April 7.)
YAZOO CITY, Miss. — An Amtrak passenger train derailed and toppled on its side in rural central Mississippi late Tuesday, killing one person and injuring at least 65 others.
The nine-car train, traveling from New Orleans to Chicago, derailed about 25 miles north of Jackson, authorities said, leaving in its wake twisted and heavily damaged track.
“We have one confirmed dead,” said Amy Carruth, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency in Jackson. “We understand some of the injured are possibly critical.”
All passengers and crew were accounted for late Tuesday, Carruth said.
Lee Stokes, also of MEMA, said that while the derailment was believed to be an accident, the FBI had sent agents to the scene. Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency.
The train appeared to leave the track on a trestle five or six feet over a swampy area near Flora in Mississippi’s Delta region.
The train consisted of one engine, one baggage car, seven passenger cars and one unoccupied passenger car. Amtrak said all nine cars derailed, with the first seven coming to rest on their sides. The locomotive remained on the track.
Stokes said it appeared about 65 people suffered “minor to critical injuries.” She said the injured were initially treated at emergency stations, then moved to hospitals.
Dr. Bob Galli, head of the University of Mississippi Medical Center trauma center, said bus loads of “walking wounded” were taken to area hospitals. UMC officials said some of the injured were complaining of back pain.
Dan Stessel, a spokesman for Amtrak, said 68 passengers and 12 crew members were on the train, the City of New Orleans. He said he had no information on what caused the accident.
Two passengers, Shelia Doyle and her husband Charles Lotz, told The Clarion-Ledger that they saw a cloud of dust and the train started tipping on its side. “Oh, my God, we are derailing,” Lotz said.
Authorities said many rescuers were forced to use off-road vehicles to reach the scene because of woods and soggy ground. Searchers used flash lights and portable lighting during the night as they moved from car to car checking for more injured.
Stessel said the train made several stops after leaving New Orleans about 1:55 p.m., including Jackson. He said the train derailed at about 7 p.m., near the Yazoo-Madison county line, before its scheduled stop in Yazoo City.
Paula Turnage, of Byram, said she put her 72-year-old mother, Mary Turnage of Kalamazoo, Mich., on the train in Jackson and was surprised to receive a cell phone call from her a short time later.
“She was OK. She didn’t have any shoes on,” Paula Turnage said.