MENDON, Mo. – A Chicago-bound Amtrak train with 243 passengers and 12 crew members onboard reportedly crashed Monday into a dump truck in Mendon, Missouri, about 80 miles northwest of Columbia, derailing eight cars and two locomotives. It is being reported that several people have been killed and dozens injured in that derailment in central Missouri.
Photos taken by people at the scene are eerily similar to those of the Sept. 25, 2021 derailment in Montana when an Amtrak train derailed eight cars, causing passengers and crew to climb out of broken windows as the train cars laid on their sides.
Local emergency personnel immediately headed to the scene of the latest derailment of the Southwest Chief Train No. 4 that started in Los Angeles, California, before making many stops including Flagstaff, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Kansas City and Topeka, Mo., before heading to Galesburg, Princeton, Mendota and Naperville, Illinois, with its final stop in downtown Chicago expected about 6 p.m.
An Amtrak team also reportedly was deployed to the scene of today’s derailment. This derailment is the second in two days, with another Amtrak train killing three and injuring two others, including a child, when it struck a vehicle in Brentwood, California.
“The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will be sending out a go-team to the scene,” said Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices in Chicago. “The families here are going to want answers and the experts there will examine every aspect of what occurred in yet another rail tragedy. The speed of the train, who was at the controls, weather issues, signals, tracks, engineering – all will be examined by the NTSB.”