Port Hueneme Woman Injured in Derailed Train : Disaster: Cheryl Jepson was returning home with her husband and five children. She tells of passengers coming to each other’s aid.

Jostled awake by screeching wheels and rattling sounds, Cheryl Jepson of Port Hueneme instantly realized that something was wrong with the Amtrak Sunset Limited train in which she and her family were riding.

Saboteurs derailed the 248-passenger train shortly after 1 a.m. Monday, causing more than 100 injuries and the death of a sleeping car attendant based in Los Angeles.

“You could tell it was going to derail,” said Jepson, 33, who was returning home from a trip to Texas with her husband and five children. “Everybody was thrown toward the closet. . . . The next thing we knew, the car was on its side and I had five screaming kids.”

After making sure their children were safe, Cheryl Jepson and husband Bryan, a utilitiesman 2nd Class at Port Hueneme’s Naval Construction Battalion Center, pulled two women out of a sleeping car that landed at a 45-degree angle in a dry wash about 50 miles southwest of Phoenix. The passengers scrambled down the train tracks to safety.

“We tried to help as much as possible and to get people out after we got our kids out,” Jepson said from her bed at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. “We just pulled together to see what we could do,” she continued. “Everybody was looking out for everybody. It looked like utter chaos, but it was under control. Everybody in our car walked away.”

Jepson said her family also was aided by fellow Samaritans on the crippled train.

“Women were giving the kids blankets to get wrapped up in and T-shirts. Everybody was fantastic,” she said.

Jepson and her daughter Katy, 9, suffered the most significant injuries. Katy was released with a cast on her wrist and her mother had to spend the night in the hospital, along with Jepson’s 3-month-old son, Larry.

“I was the most banged-up of our family,” said Jepson, who picked up a number of deep bruises and may have a broken arm. “Larry’s doing fantastic.”

Cheryl and Larry, the littlest victim of the terrorist attack, were taken to Phoenix by helicopter. They spent Monday night in the hospital, Larry for observation and Cheryl for tests on her back and neck.

Bryan Jepson, 31, and the couple’s three other daughters--Chris, 6; Jenny, 4, and Becky, 16 months--were treated for bumps and bruises and spent the night in a hotel near the hospital.

The family’s harrowing trip began a month ago, when they were summoned to the deathbed of Cheryl’s father in Dallas. Larry Vandecar was able to meet his namesake before his death Sept. 28.

The Jepsons boarded the Amtrak Sunset Limited on Saturday afternoon in Dallas and were scheduled to return to Port Hueneme on Monday morning.

Jepson said the family expects to return to Ventura County--and Katy and Chris to Sunkist Elementary--by the end of the week. But they’ll travel by plane.

“My children definitely don’t want to take a train back,” said Jepson, a former aviation mechanic at Point Mugu who plans to become a nurse. “Up until the train derailed, it was fine. Now I’m not quite sure about riding on trains.”

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One killed, 100 hurt in derailment. A1