(The following article by Sabrina Tavernise was posted on the New York Times website on April 7.)
YAZOO, Miss — An Amtrak train derailed and crashed on its side last night in rural Mississippi, killing at least one person, critically injuring two more and leaving scores of people injured, the authorities said.
The Chicago-bound train, the City of New Orleans, went off the rails about 6:30 p.m. about 30 miles north of Jackson in Yazoo County, Lea Stokes, a spokeswoman for Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said. It had come from New Orleans and was carrying 68 passengers and 12 crewmembers.
The two critically injured passengers were airlifted out of the area. Seven people were treated on the scene with serious injuries, and 56 others suffered less threatening injuries. Victims were first taken to a school in the city of Flora, near the accident. Soon after, they were taken to four or five Jackson-area hospitals, she said.
It was unclear precisely what caused the train to skip off the tracks. Ms. Stokes said all of the train’s nine cars had fallen from the rails and crashed. Only the engine remained on the tracks.
“It was kind of a ribbon effect,” she said. “When one car went off, the entire train went off like a ribbon and the entire train went over on its side.”
The accident was not believed to have been caused by an act of terrorism, but officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were at the site “checking it out just to make sure,” she said.
Mississippi’s governor, Haley Barbour, declared a state of emergency after the accident.
Dan Stessel, a spokesman for Amtrak, said that the train’s reservation records showed 72 passengers and 12 crew members but that perhaps only 68 passengers had been on the train.
The train had just crossed the line between Yazoo County and Madison County, and had not reached its next scheduled stop in Yazoo City, Ms. Stokes said. It left Jackson at 5:45 p.m.
Emergency crews remained on the scene searching for people last night, though by 12:30 a.m. it appeared that everyone had been accounted for, Ms. Stokes said.
“We’re still there,” Ms. Stokes said of the emergency workers. “We’re not leaving until we’re absolutely sure we have everyone.”