Appleton-area Boy Scouts, adults on Amtrak train that derailed in Missouri after striking a dump truck

Sixteen Appleton-area Boy Scouts escaped serious injury Monday when their Amtrak train carrying them back from a trip to New Mexico derailed after striking a dump truck in rural Missouri.

No one in the group was seriously injured, said Scott Armstrong, director of national media relations for the Boy Scouts of America. Adults in the group were bused to an area hospital to be examined after the crash.

The Scouts administered first aid to several injured passengers, including the driver of the dump truck, Armstrong said. A source confirmed to The Post-Crescent that one of the scouts tried to comfort the truck driver before he died.

Four people were killed in the crash; the fourth death was announced Tuesday. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said about 150 people were taken to 10 area hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to serious. 

The scouts, from Appleton-based troops 12 and 73 and ranging in age from 13 to 17, were returning from a week-long "adventure trek," said Brian Robb, director of Field Service for the Bay-Lakes Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

He said two adults with the scouts were taken to hospital by ambulance.

"We're hoping (the injuries) are just minor, like broken ribs," Robb said.

The train, carrying 275 passengers and 12 crew, hit a dump truck that was on the tracks at a public crossing in Mendon, a rural part of north-central Missouri near Columbia. Eight cars and two locomotives derailed, Amtrak said.

The scout troops are chartered with the first First English Lutheran Church of Appleton.

The scouts had been at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. It's the largest scout ranch in the world, said Ralph Voelker, scout executive for the Bay-Lakes Council. The train had been scheduled to continue to Chicago.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were at the scene Tuesday, trying to determine how the accident happened and why the truck was on the tracks.

A Missouri Department of Transportation plan released this year cited a need to improve safety at the rail crossing, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. 

Local residents have complained that the overgrowth of brush and the steep incline from the road to the tracks makes it hard to see oncoming trains from either direction. 

Mike Spencer, who grows corn and soybeans on land surrounding the intersection, said the crossing is especially dangerous for those driving heavy, slow farm equipment.

Earlier this month, Spencer posted a video on Facebook of the crossing that shows the steep gravel incline leading up to it.

“We have to cross this with farm equipment to get to several of our fields,” Spencer wrote with the posting. “We have been on the RR for several years about fixing the approach by building the road up, putting in signals, signal lights or just cutting the brush back.”

USA TODAY and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Contact Doug Schneider at (920) 431-8333, or DSchneid@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PGDougSchneider.