Chicago-Bound TrainWith L.A. Cars Derails

The Amtrak Zephyr en route to Chicago with cars originating in Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle derailed in a canyon southeast of here Tuesday night, injuring at least 26 people, six seriously, authorities said.

Two engines and five passenger cars of the 14-unit train left the tracks in Fraser Canyon about 8 p.m., as the train was traveling about 30 m.p.h., said Clifford Black, an Amtrak spokesman in Washington, D.C. The engines fell into an adjacent river.

The train originated in Oakland, with passenger cars from Los Angeles and Seattle added in Salt Lake City. The two cars from Los Angeles were not among those that derailed, according to Art Lloyd, an Amtrak spokesman in San Francisco. He said the derailed cars originated in Oakland.

The derailment site, east of the Silver Creek ski area on the western side of the Continental Divide about 45 miles northwest of Denver, is inaccessible by automobile. Small rail cars were being used to bring out the injured.

Blamed on ‘Dry Washout’

There were 163 passengers, 14 on-board service workers and 5 crew members on the train.

Black tentatively blamed the derailment on a “dry washout.”

“The roadbed underneath the tracks seems to have been undermined,” he said. “There has been no rain or flooding in the area, but there has been considerable snowmelt.”

The more serious injuries among the passengers included broken bones and two people who suffered heart attacks, Black said. Three people, including the heart attack victims, were flown to a Denver hospital, he said.

“There were 26 people injured, 20 of the injuries were minor, 6 serious,” said Kathy Jameson, a spokeswoman for the Colorado State Patrol in Hot Sulphur Springs.

“They were unable to get everyone out of the canyon for two hours,” she said. “The people are now being treated at local clinics. The uninjured people are being held at the high school until transportation can be arranged for them back to Denver.”