At least 2 killed, dozens injured after Amtrak train derails in South Carolina

Updated at 8:35 a.m. ET

At least two people were killed and at least 70 people were injured early Sunday morning when an Amtrak train derailed after colliding with a freight train in South Carolina.

The derailment happened in Cayce, outside of South Carolina’s capital of Columbia.

Amtrak said a train going between New York and Miami “came in contact” with a CSX freight train at about 2:35 Sunday morning.

“The lead engine derailed, as well as some passenger cars,” Amtrak said in a statement. The company said about 139 passengers and eight crew members were aboard.

The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department wrote on Twitter that two people had died and emergency medical services transported more than 50 people who were injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board says it will conduct an investigation into the collision.

It came less than a week after at least one person died when an Amtrak train carrying members of Congress hit a garbage truck near Charlottesville, Va.

In December, an Amtrak train derailed in Washington state, leaving three people dead and dozens injured. Officials said it was traveling at 80 mph in a 30 mph zone.

Since 2011, there have been 11 incidents involving Amtrak trains, including one just days ago in Virginia.

— Jan. 31, 2018: A chartered Amtrak train carrying Republican members of Congress to a strategy retreat crashed into a garbage truck at a crossing in rural Virginia, killing one person in the truck and injuring two others. No serious injuries were reported for anyone on the train, and some lawmakers with medical experience offered assistance at the scene. The cause is under investigation; nearby residents have said the crossing arms had been known to malfunction.

— Dec. 18, 2017: Three people were killed and dozens of others were hurt when an Amtrak train derailed as it made its inaugural run along a new 15-mile (24-kilometer) bypass route in Washington state, en route from Tacoma to Portland, Oregon. The train was traveling at nearly 80 mph — more than twice the speed limit around a curve. The National Transportation Safety Board says an engineer told them he misjudged the train’s location.

— April 3, 2016: Two maintenance workers were struck and killed by an Amtrak train going more than 100 mph in Chester, Pennsylvania. The lead engine of the train derailed.

— March 14, 2016: An Amtrak train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago derailed in southwest Kansas, sending five cars off the tracks and injuring at least 32 people. Investigators concluded that a cattle feed delivery truck hit the track and shifted it at least a foot before the derailment.

— Oct. 5, 2015: A passenger train headed from Vermont to Washington, D.C., derailed when it hit rocks that had fallen onto the track from a ledge. The locomotive and a passenger car spilled down an embankment, derailing three other cars and injuring seven people.

— May 12, 2015: Amtrak Train 188 was traveling at twice the 50 mph speed limit as it entered a sharp curve in Philadelphia and derailed. Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured when the locomotive and four of the train’s seven passenger cars jumped the tracks. Several cars overturned and ripped apart.

— March 9, 2015: At least 55 people were injured when an Amtrak train bound from North Carolina to New Jersey derailed after colliding with an oversized tractor-trailer that was stuck on the tracks in Halifax, North Carolina.

— June 23, 2014: An Amtrak train hit a vehicle that was apparently driving on train tracks in Massachusetts, killing three people in the vehicle and derailing the train just before midnight in a remote area about 24 miles southwest of Boston. None of the 180 people on board the train was injured.

— Oct. 21, 2012: About a dozen passengers and crew members on an Amtrak train from Chicago to Pontiac, Michigan, were injured when two locomotives and one or more coaches derailed after the train lost contact with the track near Niles, Michigan.

— Oct. 2, 2012: Two cars and the locomotive of an Amtrak train carrying about 169 passengers derailed after colliding with a semitrailer in California’s Central Valley. At least 20 passengers suffered minor to moderate injuries. The train was traveling from Oakland to Bakersfield.

— June 24, 2011: A truck slammed into the side of an Amtrak California Zephyr train at a rural crossing 70 miles east of Reno, Nevada, killing six people and injuring dozens. The train was traveling from Chicago to California.

This post will be updated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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