SC Train Crash Leaves 2 Dead, 90 Hurt

CAYCE, S.C. (AP) -- A crash between an Amtrak passenger train and a CSX freight train near South Carolina's capital killed two people and injured nearly 90 early Sunday, authorities said. It was the third deadly wreck involving Amtrak in less than two months.

Amtrak's Silver Star was heading from New York to Miami with eight crew members and about 140 passengers when the crash happened around 2:45 a.m. near Cayce, authorities said.

Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said the two people killed were on the Amtrak train.

The cause of the wreck was under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators.

The crash happened by a rail yard about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Columbia, where several track spurs split off for freight cars to be unloaded. Authorities said they haven't determined if both trains were moving at the time.

The Amtrak train's lead engine and several passenger cars derailed, Amtrak said. TV footage showed the locomotive on its side, its front crumpled.

At least 89 people were taken to hospitals, and at least three were admitted, hospital officials said. Those who weren't hurt were taken in patrol cars to a shelter.

"We know they are shaken up quite a bit. We know this is like nothing else they have ever been through. So we wanted to get them out of the cold, get them out of the weather — get them to a warm place," sheriff's spokesman Adam Myrick said.

On Wednesday, a chartered Amtrak train carrying Republican members of Congress to a strategy retreat slammed into a garbage truck at a crossing in rural Virginia, killing one person in the truck and injuring six others.

And on Dec. 18, an Amtrak train ran off the rails along a curve during its inaugural run on a route south of Tacoma, Washington, killing three people and injuring dozens. It was going nearly 80 mph, more than twice the speed limit.

(KA)