amtrak crash 1993 victims

Deaths and serious injuries in Amtrak accidents are uncommon, but not unheard of. Three people were killed Sunday afternoon when an Amtrak commuter train smashed into a car in Northern California, authorities said. See the article in its original context from. 2 on the CSXT Big Bayou Canot Bridge Accident Report", "Barge Pilot Blamed in Fatal Amtrak Wreck", "No Criminal Liability Is Found in Amtrak Bayou Derailment", "25 years later: Sunset Limited crash survivor relives each new Amtrak accident", Mobile Press-Register 200th Anniversary: Sunset Limited train wreck memories not diminished by passing years, Aerial and Boat Views of Amtrak Train Derailment, Mobile, Alabama (1993), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_Bayou_Canot_rail_accident&oldid=1141804853, Barge collision with bridge / wrong design, Eleven-year-old wheelchair user Andrea Chancey, the "miracle child" with, Ken Ivory and Michael Dopheide, honored by the, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 22:15. One of those barges has a big dent in it, said special agent Chuck Archer in Mobile, Ala. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Three people have died and at least 50 injured after an Amtrak Southwest Chief train hit a dump truck at a public crossing and derailed near Mendon, north of Marshall. For his part, Paiz said he helped other passengers out through a window on the lower side of his car. On September 22, 1993, an Amtrak train derailed on the CSX Transportation Big Bayou Canot Bridge near Mobile, Alabama, United States. The water was over his head, he said, and he held onto beams from the bridge until a boat came by and rescued him. Chancey sometimes wonders why she lived when so many others died. He just thought, Hey, this is a great game! . Together, Russell and Paiz opened an emergency window. He had gotten on in Los Angeles after visiting his sister in Highland Park. "It's not something we talk about all the time," said Steve Huffman, spokesman for the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, "(but) it never goes away -- especially when September rolls around.". The train collided with a stopped CSX freight train. It left Los Angeles on Sunday, changed crews in New Orleans and headed toward Alabama. Russ explained that plans originally called for Ernie Russ to get off the train in Mobile. Despite worsening health problems linked in part to cerebral palsy, Chancey expresses less concern about herself than for Odom, who she doesn't blame for the loss of her parents. He said he tried to stay calm as he finally dropped from one of the lower windows six feet down into the water. But it was so foggy you really couldn't see the water.". The Empire Builder, which runs between Chicago and Seattle-Portland, derailed near the Canadian border at around 4 p.m. local time Saturday, killing three of the 141 passengers and leaving seven. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. This article is more than 7 years old. It was a long drop to the water below. On Monday, it cost Loomis 17+ years of his life. The train derailed due to sabotage of the rails. Apr 25, 2018. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. "They pulled each other out of that train. The engine and two of the train's 11 cars also caught . Forty-seven people died and more than 100 others were hurt. Chancey doesn't recall seeing either of her parents again, possibly because of water rushing into the car and inky darkness -- the only light came from burning diesel fuel that spilled from the locomotives. I hear the screaming," said Chancey, now 36. Five other incidents have caused ten or more deaths: a 1987 collision with freight locomotives in Maryland, a 1971 derailment in Illinois, a 1996 collision with a commuter train in Maryland, a 1999 grade crossing accident in Illinois, and a 1977 grade crossing accident in Florida. The train struck a gasoline tanker at a grade crossing. The victims were confirmed to be 72-year-old Maria Nieves of Antioch, 51-year-old Mercedes Regalado of Dixon and 41-year-old Julia Mondragon of Dixon, according to the Contra Costa County Office. The crew of the Mauvilla did not make a rescue call until 3:08 a.m., but did manage to pull seven survivors out of the swamp. But in a last-minute change, he continued on toward Pensacola. Paiz, who cannot swim, said he admired his septuagenarian seatmate for taking that plunge. An Amtrak train headed to Miami derails near Mobile, Alabama, killing 47 people on September 22, 1993. Their Amtrak train to Chicago collided with a dump truck at a crossing killing the two women and another passenger who succumbed on Tuesday - 82-year-old Binh Phan, of Kansas City, Missouri. I knew then that we had derailed.. HAYSTEAD, Suzanne, 22, Britain HEUTE-de-BECELLAR, Claudia Nicola, Brazil HERNANDEZ, Esteban R., 65, Los Angeles HOLTZWORTH, Geraldine, 63, Tallahassee, Fla. HOLTZWORTH, William John, 73, Tallahassee, Fla. LEONARD, Mary Ellen, 84, St. Petersburg, Fla. LESTER, Marsha, 50, Los Angeles MAIN, Lorna, 50, Britain McMAHON, David, New Orleans McNAB, James, 57, Long Beach, Calif. McNAB, Janice, 55, Long Beach, Calif. NEWTON, Eric, 44, Kissimmee, Fla. PEARCE, Billie Patricia, 62, Reynoldsville, Pa. POOLE, Dorothy, Tallahassee, Fla. POOLE, Harold, 68, Tallahassee, Fla. POWELL, Olga, Tampa, Fla. QUAINTANCE, Ronald, 44, Jackson, Miss. The list was compiled from information provided by Amtrak, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and bureau reports of The Associated Press: ANDERSON, Shirley, 55, Portland, Ore. BALL, Maxine, 69, Gibsonton, Fla. CAMARENA, Nedra, 20, Los Angeles CAMARENA, Jennifer, 3, Los Angeles CASPOLICH, Martha, 40, Long Beach, Miss. Authorities said they did not expect to complete a list of the dead before today. The crash occurred at around 1 . In 1982, Iraq voluntarily withdrew and sought a peace read more, On September 22, 1953, the first four-level (or stack) interchange in the world opens in Los Angeles, California, at the intersection of the Harbor, Hollywood, Pasadena, and Santa Ana freeways. The tugboat pushing them might have taken a wrong channel during the foggy night, he said. "Whenever I see Amtrak has another accident, I call my aunt and I say, 'They did it again. The bridge was only seven to 12 feet above the water (depending on the tides) and was in place so that trains could pass through the swamps. The Associated Press. I took him and shoved him out and hollered for someone to take the baby. Fire spread to the wood-and-steel trestle. One was on top of the other.(Press-Register file), Sheriff's flotilla volunteer John Lamb said the 1993 crash stands out in his long career. But he saw that it offered a way to escape. A temporary morgue was set up at the nearby marina hamlet of Port Chickasaw. These Are The Victims Of The Washington Amtrak Crash. The Sunset Limited's locomotives, baggage car and two of six passenger cars had gone. The train struck a garbage truck at a grade crossing. On the other side of the trestle was the third engine, which had pulled the train; it, too, was on its side in the mud, charred and mangled. But she does remember a few people who got her out of the wreckage, including Ivory, who had decided to take the train to North Carolina to see his wife only after missing a commercial flight. The recorders could help resolve differences about conflicts in reporting times on Coast Guard and rail logs. By late tonight, crews had rescued 159 passengers and recovered 41 bodies, including those of two crew members, said Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. (Lawrence Specker/LSpecker@AL.com ), Twenty-three years after the Sunset Limited crash, there's little to distinguish the bridge over Bayou Canot. Suddenly I was bumped on the floor, and you could hear the brakes squealing, he said afterward. The 3,000-horsepower, 240-ton engine flew across the bayou, embedding in about 46 feet of mud on the opposite bank. Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. Dopheide helped his eight survivors onto the boats. The train struck a pickup truck at a grade crossing, killing all ten occupants of the truck. The train collided with three Conrail locomotives that had failed to stop at a signal. The pilot, Andrew Stabler, earlier was interviewed by the FBI. Dopheide helped eight of them through the timber-shattered window. The family was living in Orange Park, Florida, in 1993 when they boarded Amtrak's Sunset Limited for a trip to visit relatives in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Its frustrating when you know that there are survivors in need and you cant help.. [1] Odom helped save seventeen people after the crash using the same towboat that had been pushing the barge that hit the bridge.[6]. The crash occurred in a remote area north of downtown Mobile. On Monday, an Amtrak train crashed into a dump truck at a crossing in rural Missouri, killing three and leaving an unspecified number injured. All three engines and four of the eight cars on the cross-country Sunset Limited plunged off a bridge into Bayou Canot about 11 miles north of Mobile early Wednesday. Details on the bent track were included in hundreds of pages of [] After briefly attending Wright State University and a failed marriage, Chancey wound up back on the Mississippi coast in Biloxi, where she lives today in an apartment with an assistance dog. "As soon as it got daylight, we realized how bad it was," he said. Seated next to him in one of the train cars was Fred Russell, 70, of Indio, Calif. There was suddenly a roller coaster sensation, Paiz said. A string of crashes involving Amtrak trains is rekindling memories for survivors of the passenger service's 1993 tragedy, its deadliest accident ever. The accident occurred about 15 miles north of Mobile, where the train had just stopped. Im sure some of the people didnt get out, Paiz said, through tears. To date, it is both the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak . During read more, In New York City on September 22, 1776, Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British for spying. Agents interviewed the tug operator but declined to identify him or reveal what he said. No such conversion had ever been performed but the span had not been adequately secured against unintended movement. A locomotive erupted into flames, burning its crew. Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn released a statement on the crash on Sunday, offering his condolences to the families who had lost a loved one in the crash, pledging to work with law enforcement to. Around him Dopheide saw a tragedy. Perkins said the lead engine's entire undercarriage was sheared off in the crash. Eight cars on the train, Empire Builder 7/27, which was headed from Chicago to Seattle, derailed just before 4 p.m. local time near Joplin, Montana, according to Amtrak. Record for Amtrak. (Lawrence Specker/LSpecker@AL.com ), In a scene from 1993, rescuers work at the scene of the Sunset Limited crash. Another passenger, Alfredo Lamedo, 59, of Miami, was in a car that did not drop into the bayou. The train derailed due to a cracked rail. Aboard the same train after missing a flight, Ken . People shouted at him, he said, asking him to look for medicine and purses. They had no idea of the scope of the situation, but as they drew close, the light of fires at the scene told them it was bad. It was pitch black, the only light coming from burning diesel fuel just yards away. This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 02:55. The mother hollered to take the baby. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/train-derails-in-alabama-swamp. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Moreover, the cost to District agencies to enhance emergency preparedness is $250 million. I guess I was physically moving, Watts said later, but I wasnt mentally coherent until the water rose to my waist and I realized, Hey this is serious, this is not a damn dream. . WALKS, George, 56, West Palm Beach, Fla. WILLIAMS, Julia, 22, Britain. His murder was the first in a series of strange attacks in both upstate New York and New York City. "I've been wanting to come up here for 23 years," he said. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. routinely investigated such accidents under Federal train wreck statutes, which make it a Federal crime to sabotage or damage a train in interstate commerce. One of the coach cars was covered completely. Flames spread from one of the three locomotives, Dopheide said, and people around him could not find emergency exits. Five of the injured were hospitalized in critical condition. But ever since the crash, Ivory said, he has always checked on airline flights well in advance. Mr. Altosino said that before getting out himself, he helped a woman to safety as she floated toward him in the upended coach. The NTSB said the Sunset Limited got its last clear signal at 2:47 a.m. when it was about three-quarters of a mile from the bridge and traveling at 70 mph. The Chief, who arrived at the scene by helicopter shortly after the derailment, said, "It was like coming upon a ball of fire in a dense fog. Mr. Archer said F.B.I. Willie Odom has suffered enough, Chancey said, particularly considering he helped save 17 people after the crash -- including her -- using the same towboat that hit the bridge. Some people cut their bare feet on stones, and their wounds were later bound with tablecloths pulled from a dining car. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. The towboat's pilot, Willie Odom, was not properly trained on how to read his radar and so, due to very poor visibility in heavy fog and his lack of experience, did not realize he was off course. An Amtrak train headed to Miami derails near Mobile, Alabama, killing 47 people on September 22, 1993. They grabbed wooden debris to stay afloat until more help arrived. Transportation Secretary Federico F. Pena, who flew to the disaster scene, said the transportation safety board was investigating the possibility of a barge hitting the trestle. In the upended coach safety as she floated toward him in one of the injured were in. Coast Guard and rail logs cars was Fred Russell, 70, Indio... Spread from one of the dead before today Amtrak trains is rekindling memories for survivors of the rails Los. Roller coaster sensation, Paiz said, asking him to look for medicine and purses `` they each... Swim, said special agent Chuck Archer in Mobile on stones, people! 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