The Amtrak train derailment in Mendon, Missouri, killed four. Here's what else we know.
At least four people were killed and approximately 150 others were injured after an Amtrak train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago struck a dump truck and derailed in a rural north-central Missouri town on Monday afternoon.
Several cars of Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train came off the tracks after colliding with the truck at 12:42 p.m. near Mendon, just under 100 miles northwest of Columbia, the passenger rail service announced.
Seven of the train's eight cars derailed, said Cpl. Justin Dunn, public information officer with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, during a news conference.
At least three train passengers died, and the truck driver also perished, the highway patrol said Tuesday. Three fatalities were initially reported Monday; the fourth death occurred at University of Missouri Hospital, officials reported.
Approximately 150 people were transported from the scene to 10 area hospitals for "injuries that range from minor to serious in nature," the patrol said.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were on the scene Tuesday trying to determine how the train, which Amtrak says was carrying nearly 300 people, slammed into the truck at a railroad crossing.
More:3 killed and more injured when Amtrak train hits truck, derails in Mendon
Injured passengers transported to hospitals
About 50 people injured in the crash were transported to mid-Missouri hospitals.
University of Missouri Health Care reported caring for 18 patients from the train derailment as of noon Tuesday.
"Several of the patients now in house were life-flighted," MU Health Care spokesperson Eric Maze wrote in an email to the Tribune on Monday night.
Nine patients remained at University Hospital by midday Tuesday, while eight were released and one suffered fatal injuries.
Boone Hospital Center received 28 patients by Monday night, all arriving by ground with minor to moderate injuries, said Boone Health spokesperson Ben Cornelius.
"In addition to health care related needs, we have teams working to make sure they are fed and have all essential needs met including lodging for the night," Cornelius wrote in an email to the Tribune on Monday night.
Fitzgibbon Hospital in Marshall also treated multiple patients from the crash. Six patients were brought to Fitzgibbon, according to multiple reports. Each was released and set up with lodging arrangements, a supervisor said by phone.
Elsewhere, seven patients arrived by ambulance to Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe, and another was transported by helicopter to University Health in Kansas City, the Kansas City Star reported.
Passengers uninjured in the collision were relocated to nearby Northwestern High School in Mendon, where people were gathered in the gymnasium while contacting family and friends and awaiting their next steps.
Amtrak activated a phone number for family members seeking information about the derailment: 800-523-9101.
More:Photos show aftermath of passenger train derailment in Missouri
Who was on board the train?
The train was carrying approximately 275 passengers and a crew of 12, Amtrak said.
Passengers included 16 children and eight adults from two Boy Scout troops who were traveling home to Appleton, Wisconsin, after a backcountry excursion at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.
No one in the group was seriously injured, Scott Armstrong, director of national media relations for the Boy Scouts of America, told The Associated Press. The Scouts administered first aid to several injured passengers, including the driver of the dump truck, Armstrong said.
Six high school students and two chaperones from Pleasant Ridge High School in Easton, Kansas, who were headed to a Future Business Leaders of America conference in Chicago, also were aboard, the Easton United School District said in a statement.
Passenger Robert Nightingale said he was dozing in his sleeper room when the crash occurred.
“Everything started to go in slow motion,” he told CNN, describing how the train rocked before tumbling onto its side.
Nightingale was able to climb out of the side of the rail car.
“We all just sat there shocked,” said Nightingale, the owner of an art gallery in Taos, New Mexico.
More:EMS 'should be commended' for response to Amtrak train derailment, says MU trauma director
Passenger Jason Drinkard told KMBC-TV in Kansas City that the car he was in suddenly tipped over and people flew out of their seats and landed on each other.
“Seats were coming apart. Bags were going everywhere," said Drinkard, who boarded at Kansas City's Union Station. “And then, after it stopped, you could smell the fumes. And so people started panicking, thinking it was going to catch fire, so we tried to get out as quick as possible.”
Passenger Dian Couture was in the dining car with her husband celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary when she heard a loud noise and the train wobbled and then crashed onto its side.
“The people on our left-hand side flew across and hit us, and then we were standing on the windows on the right-hand side of the car," Couture told WDAF-TV. “Two gentlemen in the front came up, stacked a bunch of things and popped out the window and literally pulled us out by our hands."
More:See passengers standing in the derailed Amtrak train car in Missouri
Why did the collision happen?
The crash occurred in Chariton County at an "uncontrolled intersection" on a gravel road without lights or electronic controls, Lt. Eric Brown of the Missouri Highway Patrol told reporters.
"A lot of your rural intersections are that way," Brown said.
Investigators on the scene Tuesday were trying to determine how the accident happened and why the truck was on the tracks. The truck was broken into pieces from the collision. The damaged tracks had been repaired and freight trains were operating.
In January, the Missouri Department of Transportation submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration its “State Freight & Rail Plan” plan. It included a list of proposed improvements, including the installation of lights and gates, along with roadway improvements.
The project was estimated at $400,000. Typically, the federal government would pay 80% and the county 20%. MoDOT spokeswoman Linda Horn said in an email that any project must be worked out in coordination with the track owner, BNSF Railway, and the county “based on very limited funding.”
BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said that if the state wants an upgrade, the next step is a site review.
“We would work with all of the parties involved to determine if additional warning devices are needed and then work to get those designed, built and installed,” Kent said.
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.
Spencer said he had contacted state transportation officials, Chariton County commissioners and BNSF about the potential danger. Spencer, who is on the board of a local levy district, said the dump truck driver was hauling rock for a levy on a local creek, a project that had been ongoing for a couple of days.
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.”
The posting noted that some trains pass by at up to 90 mph.
“If you cross here with a vehicle stop, approach very slowly, then look both ways there are 2 tracks and around 85 trains go through there everyday,” Spencer wrote.
It was the second Amtrak collision in as many days. Three people in a car were killed Sunday afternoon when an Amtrak commuter train smashed into it in Northern California, authorities said.
People have been injured or killed in at least six other accidents involving Amtrak trains since 2015. Last year, three people died and others were injured when an Amtrak derailed in north-central Montana as it traveled from Chicago to Seattle.
Amtrak is a federally supported company that operates more than 300 passenger trains daily in nearly every contiguous U.S. state and parts of Canada. The Southwest Chief takes about two days to travel from Los Angeles to Chicago, picking up passengers at stops in between.
The Associated Press and USA Today contributed to this report.