A fourth Amtrak passenger has died in Monday’s train crash with a dump truck at a Missouri railroad crossing — where local reps said Tuesday they’ve been pushing for safety upgrades since 2019.
The Missouri Department of Transportation last year released a plan calling for improving safety at the site.
The developments came as the head of the National Transportation Safety Board and 15 investigators arrived at the scene to probe the disaster.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the latest fatal victim was a passenger on the train, which was carrying 275 riders and heading to Los Angeles from Chicago when it collided with the vehicle near Mendon and derailed.
The truck driver, along with two other passengers, were also killed in the wreck.
Chariton County Presiding Commissioner Evan Emmerich told The Associated Press that local farmer Mike Spencer brought his concerns to commissioners in 2019 about the safety of the crossing.
“I was certain that this was going to happen. It was just a matter of time,” Spencer told the Kansas City Star after Monday’s disaster.
Emmerich told AP that the commissioners then picked up the ball, alerting the state Railroad Safety agency and BNSF Railway, which owns the track.
Commissioners were soon told by state Department of Transportation officials that the site was “on their plans to repair,” Emmerich said.
A rep for BNSF told the AP that the company had not been apprised of any state plans to upgrade the crossing.
Speaking at a press conference at the scene Tuesday, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said her agency was not aware of specific complaints about the site.
Homendy said state officials told her they had previously planned to address safety at the crossing and that it would cost roughly $400,000 to install signals and lights.
The force of Monday’s crash caused eight train cars and two locomotives to detach from the tracks and topple over, officials said.
Roughly 150 people, many of whom were forced to crawl out of train-car windows, were taken to local hospitals with a variety of injuries. Some victims were severely wounded, officials said.
Survivors recalled being violently tossed in the air before desperately clambering over seats and luggage to exit the train.
Homendy told the Washington Post that the agency has asked for any footage captured by cameras on the train.
Three people were killed in another Amtrak crash in the state of Washington fewer than three years later, in 2017.
