24 Hurt as Train Derails; Switch Operator Vanishes

Amtrak’s Night Owl train rolled down a section of track where repairs were under way and derailed today, injuring 24 passengers, and authorities searched for a railroad employee who disappeared from the tower after failing to switch the train to a clear track, federal officials said.

Bill Loftus, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration in Washington, said the worker left his control post immediately after the train crashed into a piece of maintenance equipment at 12:34 a.m., and had not been found.

“The focus of FRA’s investigation is on the block operator who should have diverted the Amtrak train from track 2 to a clear track before the collision with the maintenance-of-way equipment,” Loftus said.

He said the block operator has remote control of switches.

All 10 cars and two engines of the train, en route from Washington to Boston, jumped the tracks on a 16-foot-high overpass in Chester, 15 miles south of Philadelphia.

One locomotive tumbled down a 16-foot embankment and debris from the train showered onto the streets below. Both locomotives and two baggage cars landed on their sides. The passenger cars left the tracks but remained upright on the overpass.

Most of those injured were treated for cuts and bruises.

Loftus said the block operator left before investigators could interview him and before drug and alcohol tests could be administered.