Two Trains Collide in Maryland, Killing 12

Twelve people died and at least 20 more were injured Friday night when an Amtrak train bound for Chicago and a commuter train nearing Washington collided on a wooded, snowbound stretch of track just beyond the nation’s capital.

The crash, which occurred as darkness fell and snow from a daylong storm mounted, was the third serious rail accident in the nation in eight days. A commuter accident killed three people in New Jersey on Feb. 9 and a freight train derailed in St. Paul, Minn., Thursday.

Amtrak’s Capitol Limited was believed to be carrying about 175 passengers and crew members when its locomotive collided in Silver Spring, Md., a few blocks from the District of Columbia’s northern boundary, with the front passenger car of a train operated by the Maryland Rail Commuter system. The local train had originated in Brunswick, Md., and was headed for Union Station in Washington.

Fourteen Job Corps trainees were aboard the commuter train, which carried only 17 passengers and three crewmen, Associated Press reported.

The impact derailed the Amtrak train and split the front car of the commuter train. Amateur video pictures taken moments after the crash, which occurred at 5:45 p.m., showed flames flaring out of the wreckage, thick, choking black smoke enveloping the scene and wisps of steam coming eerily from the locomotive.

The crash occurred where twin tracks run within about 50 feet of a multistory apartment building.

Several apartment buildings near the busy 16th Street corridor were reportedly evacuated.

One passenger said that the Amtrak train on which he was riding had been traveling at about 25 or 30 mph when the accident occurred. The commuter train “jarred us and hit again,” he said, and a steward standing near him “went flying.”

Electricity went out, the train went dark and “we saw smoke out of the windows,” he said.

Another passenger, Bill Gatchel, told a television interviewer that he had been playing solitaire in the lounge “and all at once, a big crash happened. We jerked and that’s all I can really tell you.”

“When I got off the train, I saw one engine off the track,” he said. “I saw smoke rising that looked like it was from another engine. I’m not sure.”

Warren Monks, a spokesman for the Maryland Transit Administration, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that it was unclear what caused the accident. But he said: “We were having some switch problems.”

In addition to a possible signal or switch malfunction on the tracks, owned and operated by CSX Transportation, investigators were examining the dispatching orders sent by radio from CSX headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla., said Deputy Transportation Secretary Mortimer Downey.

He said the Amtrak train had been switched to another track around a freight train just before the crash, but that it was unclear whether the Amtrak and commuter trains were on the same track, Associated Press reported.

The Washington Post reported that several passengers on the commuter train said it, too, had switched tracks, in northern Maryland. “The conductor told us we had to pass an accident on another track,” Damian Benitez, 19, of Philadelphia, told the Post.

Kelvin Williams, 19, of Seat Pleasant, Md., said there had been no sign of trouble until “three conductors came out screaming, ‘Everybody get down!’ And then we crashed. Everybody was crying and screaming.”

The Maryland train apparently bore the brunt of the crash and all of those killed were said to have been aboard it. It was being pushed by a locomotive from the rear. Thus, the passenger car was believed to have been the first one struck in the collision with the Amtrak locomotive.

The dead in the commuter train were victims of multiple trauma and fire, a fire department spokeswoman said.

None was immediately identified, and a Job Corps spokesman said hospitals and police had not released any information on the victims.

The Chicago-bound train was made up of two locomotives, seven baggage cars, two passenger coaches, two lounge cars and two sleeping cars. The locomotives and four baggage cars derailed. The passenger cars apparently stayed upright on the tracks. Most, if not all, of the passengers were apparently seated because the train had left Union Station only minutes earlier.

Mike Hall, a spokesman for Montgomery County, in which the crash took place, said three people had injuries described as serious. Local hospitals reported treating at least 20 people. Other sources said that at least three dozen people were injured.

Those killed were said to have died of burns or blunt trauma.

Hall said that the bodies of the victims were left in the wreckage while investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board conducted a preliminary investigation.

Denise Fox, of the Montgomery County Department of Fire and Rescue Service, said that “when the firefighters first arrived at the scene, there were people banging on the windows and trying to get out.”

The crash occurred at a spot where twin tracks run in a depression below street level. Although the stretch is wooded, it is within about 50 feet of a high-rise apartment building and within 100 feet of a complex of garden apartments in the Rosemary Hills neighborhood. Beyond the apartments are single-family homes and a small shopping area.