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Amtrak derailment causes long, cramped night for passengers
Monday, January 31, 2000 By Jan Ackerman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Munching on a complimentary boxed chicken lunch in the waiting room of Pittsburgh's Amtrak station yesterday, Rick Sigrist recounted the highlights of his disastrous vacation trip to Florida.
The first problem was the weather in Florida. It was so cold, he and his wife, Beverly, couldn't wear shorts for the last five days of their two-week trip. This was the sixth time the Marion, Ohio, couple had traveled to Florida by train, hoping to escape the cold.
The second problem was a train derailment. Sigrist loves Amtrak, but on the second leg of their return train trip from Orlando to Toledo, Ohio, the Capitol Limited derailed in a remote section of Fayette County shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday.
No one was injured, but 124 passengers and 15 crew members were trapped on the disabled train for more than nine hours. The lights on the train worked, but toilets couldn't be flushed, blankets were in short supply, and by daybreak, passengers were starting to feel like caged animals.
At 10:15 a.m., everyone arrived at the Pittsburgh Amtrak station by bus.
Sigrist, the intrepid train traveler, remained philosophical about the ordeal.
"We were fortunate that it wasn't a worse accident. I always tell my wife that if you fly, you die. If you wreck on a train, you have a chance to live," said Sigrist, 47, who hoped to get back to Toledo late last night.
But the Pennsylvanian, the train that would take about 40 of the passengers to western destinations, also was running late yesterday afternoon, so the passengers sat in the Amtrak station eating boxed lunches provided by Amtrak.
Debbie Hare, spokeswoman for Amtrak, said two locomotives and eight cars, including seven passenger cars, derailed at about 9:55 p.m. Saturday in Springfield, about 44 miles from Pittsburgh.
Passengers described the derailment as a series of jolts and thumps.
"At first you could tell we were losing speed. There was a big bump, a bit of a lurch and a lot of thumping like you were riding over 20 or 30 speed bumps in succession," said Michael Cerven, 33, of Cleveland.
Two locomotives, seven passenger cars and a baggage car derailed but remained upright. Hare said the derailment was a minor one, but getting the passengers out of that remote location was difficult.
Through the night, passengers said, they sat in the cars that were slightly tilted. About once an hour, a freight train would pass by on the second track.
Susan Mignard, 56, of Hawaii, said she was too nervous to fall asleep.
"I was worried that another train would hit us," she said.
For Mignard, the worst part of the experience was the lack of bathrooms.
"The water doesn't run when the trains are down," she said. "They were offering refreshments, but no one wanted to drink."
Frank Till, 45, of Waukesha, Wis., and his wife, Susan, had the misfortune of getting trapped in the club car with about 15 or 20 others. They had been watching a movie when the train derailed.
As the night dragged on, the club car seats became more and more uncomfortable, he said. Information was scarce, and passengers were getting angry. Some tried to lie on the floor. Others started searching for blankets and pillows.
For Amtrak, Hare said, the most difficult part was trying to get the passengers and crew to a road where Amtrak brought buses to pick them up.
"The closest road crossing was five miles away," she said.
Working through the night, Amtrak officials eventually decided to herd all the passengers onto two sleeping cars that had been put back on the rails. That transfer began at about 5:55 a.m. and Hare acknowledged that it was "a little cramped."
Claustrophobic was the term several passengers used.
Till said that having all the passengers squished together in the two sleeping cars made some people feel panicked.
"We had to pop open the windows to get some fresh air inside," he said.
The two sleepers were pulled away from the accident site at 7:20 a.m. They arrived at the road crossing where buses were waiting at 8:30 a.m., Hare said.
The buses transported the passengers to Pittsburgh, where they were given several options for getting back home. Some were staying in local hotels yesterday and planned to take the Capitol Limited from Pittsburgh at midnight.
Hare said four passengers decided to fly home, and they were transported to the airport. The others hoped to travel by train.
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