Highlights

• An Amtrak passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago collided with a dump truck in Missouri.

• According to Amtrak, the train was carrying 255 people on board when it derailed in Missouri.

• 3 dead and dozens injured in the train crash.

An Amtrak train collided with a dump truck in a remote area near Mendon, Missouri US, on Monday afternoon, June 27, 2022.

The train was on its way from Los Angeles to Chicago. According to the company, there were 255 people on board, out of which about 243 were passengers and the remaining 12 were crew members, when it collided with a dump truck around 12:42 PM at a public crossing, near Mendon about 100 miles outside of Kansas City.

3 killed, and many injured

The crash left at least three people dead and dozens of people injured out of which some people were in critical condition, as rail cars detailed, tumbled off the tracks and landed on their sides, as per multiple media reports.

Two of those who died were on the train when the accident happened and the third person was in the dump truck that the train hit.

It was not instantaneously clear exactly how many people were injured but according to the hospitals more than 40 patients were admitted and the toll is expected to grow.

The Southwest chief Train derailed 2 locomotives and almost 8 passenger cars after striking a truck, which was obstructing the public crossing near Mendon, Missouri. As most of the carriages flipped onto their sides, the passengers had to climb out upwards through the doors.

There were many individuals with questions about their family and friends who were traveling by train. According to a statement, the response team has been activated after the incident and the railroad service is also deploying emergency personnel to the site to help employees and passengers.

Around 20 local and state law enforcement agencies, medical helicopter services, ambulance services, and fire departments responded to the accident. The first emergency responders arrived within 20 minutes after calling on 911.

Several social media posts and videos showed rail cars on their sides and emergency responders used ladders to climb into them to help the people stuck there. Also, there were six medical helicopters parked nearby to provide transport facilities to patients.

Amtrak is a federally supported company; it operates more than around 300 passenger trains daily in almost all US states and parts of Canada.

It took two days for South West chief to travel from Los Angeles to Chicago, by picking up passengers from stations in between. Mendon, with a population of about 160 people, is about 84 miles northeast of Kansas City.

It was a second Amtrak collision in two days, in the previous crash train collided with a car at an unprotected crossing on Sunday afternoon in Northern California. Three people died and at least two others were injured. The deceased was found dead at the scene and the two people who were injured, including a child, were shifted to the hospital with serious injuries. No death or injury was reported from the passengers traveling on the train.