When the Police Department is calling me 4.5 hrs before my shift on a Sunday morning it's never a good sign..
Today it was because an Amtrak train out of Chicago heading to Kalamazoo and onto Detroit and Port Huron,
derailed inside my Niles City limits.
I have to say in 20+ years of law enforcement I've never had that type of situation!
There were 176 people on board, on a high speed train traveling at 60 mph when the switch
for some reason sent the train to the wrong track. The train was working its way up to 110mph, it's top
speed. Luckily the Engineer was on the brake immediately bringing the train to a earth shattering halt.
The train did derail but luckily never tipped over on it's side. The track it was on contained a row of parked
freight cars which were locked down with a parking brake type mechanism. These freight cars had just been
moved ahead on their track a few days prior.
The Amtrak train stopped less than a car length from the freight cars. If they had hit those freight cars we
would have had serious if not deadly injuries inside the passenger compartments. If the accident had happened
a few days prior, the train would never have had enough stopping distance to avoid them.
The next Amtrak train due through was an express route which would not have stopped at our depot, instead
it would have cruised through our town at the 110 mph speed, again, causing horrific damage to the passengers
when the most certain collision would have happened.
Instead, we had only 7 people taken to the hospital..1 of which was the engineer and 1 was the conductor.
Injuries appeared to be minor and non life threatening or critical.
The area where the train stopped is an easy access point for us with a service road and turn around going right
to it. It was literally possible to drive the ambulance right up to the tracks. If it had gone 1 more mile down
the tracks, we would have been in a desolate wooded area making recovery and rescue so much harder.
Ironically, the area the train stopped is an area we frequently do mass casualty incident training at.
Whether you believe in a higher power or synchronicity at it's best.... The way this worked out is nothing
short of amazing. I dealt with the passengers who we bus'd back to the train depot, making them comfortable,
notifying their families, providing food, refreshments and updates from Amtrak. Almost all the passengers
were gracious, calm and thankful, following instructions from public safety officials and maintaining a sense of order.
They were truly courageous and I applaud their attitude in the wake of such a terrifying accident.
If anyone is interested in seeing pictures, our local online paper probably has the best photo gallery at:
Stories are also running on:
www.abc57.com
www.nilesstar.com
www.wndu.com
