Amtrak train derails in Michigan after striking vehicle on tracks
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An engineer and 10 passengers were treated by local ambulance services for “non-life-threatening injuries".
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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MICHIGAN - An Amtrak passenger train carrying more than 200 passengers derailed in Michigan on Nov 16 night after striking a vehicle on the tracks, injuring 11 people, local authorities said.
Amtrak said the accident happened near New Buffalo, Michigan, a township near Lake Michigan about an hour east of Chicago.
The train, with six crew members and an estimated 218 passengers aboard, had been traveling west to Chicago from Pontiac, Michigan.
At 9:21pm (10.21am on Nov 17, Singapore time) it hit a stranded vehicle on the tracks that was being towed and derailed, but stayed upright, according to a release from the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees New Buffalo.
An engineer and 10 passengers were treated by local ambulance services for “non-life-threatening injuries,” the release said, and about 200 passengers on the train were safely evacuated to a local high school.
Some passengers were then picked up by family and friends, and Amtrak transported others by bus to its train station in Chicago a little after midnight on Nov 17 morning, the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office said. The accident was still being investigated, it said.
Experts say derailments usually happen when a train takes a turn too fast – one reason that automatic-braking technology has been installed on many passenger railroads across the United States in recent years.
Other derailments are caused by faulty equipment.
Earlier this year, federal investigators blamed a fatal derailment in Montana two years ago
