RALEIGH, North Carolina — An Amtrak train that had picked up passengers in the Raleigh area hit a truck carrying a mobile home at a crossing in Halifax, northeast of Raleigh, and derailed Monday.
An Amtrak spokesman said that 15 to 20 passengers were taken to a nearby hospital for injuries not considered life-threatening. There were 212 passengers and eight crew members aboard the train at the time of the accident, Amtrak said.
The tractor-trailer truck stalled while crossing the tracks on state Route 903 at the intersection with U.S. 301 in Halifax.
The mobile home was halfway across the tracks when the train braked and collided with the load.
“The train ran right through it,” said Patrick Narmi, a 21-year-old North Carolina State University student who boarded the Carolinian in Raleigh at 10:25 a.m. en route to Penn Station in New York.
Narmi had purchased a drink at the concessions car and had just settled into his seat for a 10-hour trip when the train “braked harder than usual.”
“A few seconds later I heard the impact,” he said.
Narmi said the effect of the collision was similar to an automobile accident. He was thrown from his seat into the seat in front of him head-first before winding up on his knees on the floor.
When Narmi and others were allowed to leave the train, he could see the remains of the shattered mobile home. The train’s engine had flipped onto its side. The baggage, business class and coach cars had all gone off the tracks but remained upright.
Amtrak officials moved uninjured passengers to an agricultural center about three blocks from the accident before busing them to other destinations, said Amtrak spokesman Michael Cole.
There are crossing gates and overhead lights at the crossing, but it’s not clear if they were working at the time of the accident.
The maximum authorized speed limit for trains in that area is 70 mph.
The Carolinian originated in Charlotte on Monday morning and made stops in Durham, Cary and Raleigh on its way toward Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City.
The Federal Railroad Administration has sent a team of investigators to the scene of the accident.
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