Here in New Orleans, this derailment is big news, as the train originated here. I saw train 58 at lunchtime as is passed through the CN/IC Mays Yard mainline. I was thinking how relaxing a trip on the City of New Orleans would be...
Here is a story from Jackson, MS.
Date: Wed Apr 7, 2004 4:22 pm
Subject: Fw: Jackson Story on CITY Derailment
From the Jackson paperhttp://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040407/NEWS01/4
0407009April 7, 2004
Four remain hospitalized in wake of Amtrak wreckBy Jeremy Hudson
jehudson@c...
And And Lora Hines
lohines@c...Four victims of an Amtrak train derailment Tuesday in rural Yazoo County remained hospitalized today, with the two most seriously injured showing improvement.One person, 68-year-old Clara L. Downs of Chicago, died and 65 were
injured when the City of New Orleans derailed Tuesday on a trestle near the Big Black River on the Madison County-Yazoo County line, authorities said.Harold Gater/The Clarion-LedgerTwo passengers, both Amtrak employees, were the most seriously injured
and remain hospitalized at the University of Mississippi Medical Center today. Both critical last night, one is in serious condition and the other is in good condition, UMC public relations staffers said.The 38-year-old female Amtrak employee has not been identified, but the male employee, 43-year-old Amtrak chef Joey Bishop of Hammond, La., was identified by his stepbrother, Ben Husser, 31, of Jackson.
Clifford Black, director of media relations for Amtrak, said today that of 58 people needing hospital treatment, all but four passengers and crew have been released.Amtrack spent this morning assisting passengers housed at the Quality Inn on Greymont Drive in Jackson in getting to their final destinations, Black said.He would not release a list of passengers. “We are dealing with our
passengers on a one-to-one basis,” he said.The cause of the derailment is not known, Black said.
“It happened so fast,” said passenger Jacqueline Minette, who was thrown to the ceiling of the car as it toppled off the tracks.“The only thing I kept saying was, ‘Not like this. I can’t go like
this,’” said Minette, who was traveling from Pelahatchie to Chicago.The train derailed at 6:35 p.m. one mile north of the Madison-Yazoo
county line near Flora’s Kearney Park, on a section of track where there have been several other freight-train derailments. The New
Orleans-to-Chicago liner had just left Jackson and was headed to its next stop in Yazoo City.Early today, investigators from CN Railroad and Amtrak arrived at the
crash scene, along with a number of law officers and representatives from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.National Transportation Safety Board officials arrived shortly before
noon, officials said.Madison County Sheriff’s Department deputies blocked off Ratliff Road, a dirt road that runs parallel to the railroad tracks and the wreckage. A number of residents who assisted in the rescue efforts live on the road.Law officers kept members of the media and the public away from the
scene, only allowing investigators to view the wreckage.On Tuesday, passenger Bertha Cooley of Vossburg said she overheard an
Amtrak attendant warn a couple just before the crash that they were
“about to get on the rough track between Jackson and Yazoo.”“Then we started going everywhere,” said Cooley, who was traveling to
Memphis, where her 23-year-old daughter was to start cancer treatment.After the cars came to a halt, Cooley said, she crawled out an emergency exit and under the car to safety. The passengers remained calm and helped one another, she said.Triage was set up near the crash site. One man walked around with a dazed look on his face. His clothes were dirty. A woman with a child was limping. Another woman asked where she was as she started to talk on her cell phone.Passengers wrote their names on a dry-erase board as emergency officials tried to identify passengers and their injuries.Dozens of passengers were lined up on the rails and were being tended to by medics. Some of them were on backboards.Rondalynne Hogan and her two daughters, 18-month-old Reqhia Wyatt and
4-year-old Aries Russell, were headed home to Chicago. They had boarded the train in Hammond, La.Hogan said she heard a ringing sound and grabbed her two daughters.
Something hit her in the head, knocking her unconscious. She awoke to
find her car on its side.Aries was standing by her side screaming. Reqhia was on the ground and
had rocks in her mouth. A man was saying, “I am alive! Thank God! I’m
alive!”A woman was saying repeatedly, “Don’t let them leave me here,” Hogan
said. Another woman appeared to be dead, Hogan said. A man helped Hogan and her children out of the car through an emergency exit.Hogan complained of pain on her left side from her head to her feet.
“The cars are just tangled up,” she said.Part of the track was missing from the rail bed. It was not clear how the track had been displaced.Lauren Peduzzi, a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety
Board, said a team of investigators was being assembled.
The train had one engine and nine cars. Initial reports indicate the
engine and the last car were the only ones left on the track.Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency and was expected to tour the site today. He called the crash a “horrible tragedy.”At the crash site, Sheila Doyle, who was on a backboard, complained of an injured back. She was wearing one shoe. Her husband, Charles Lortz, was standing next to her with a back pack.Doyle and Lortz were among the passengers in an observation car. They
said they saw a cloud of dust and the train started tipping on its side. Her husband said, “Oh, my God, we are derailing.”Rescuers used rail cars and all-terrain vehicles to take injured
passengers to ambulances more than a mile away from the remote crash
site. The injured were taken to five area hospitals.
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