Cruise Line Suspends Rail Trip After Accident

COLON, Panama--Carnival suspended a new shore excursion in Panama after dozens of passengers on a cruise out of Miami were injured last week when their train crashed into an unoccupied engine sitting on the track. The train’s engineer died of a heart attack after the accident.

Passenger Dwight Thompson of Greensboro, N.C., was hospitalized in Panama City with broken ribs, said Tim Gallagher, a Carnival spokesman who was on the ship, the Carnival Spirit; Thompson was later released. Many of the 217 passengers and crew members on the train sustained sprains and bruises; several required neck and back braces or wheelchairs. The train was returning from Panama City when it hit the empty engine.

“It was like hitting a brick wall. Tables went flying; we went flying. It was terrifying,” said Travis Law, a Denver resident who sprained his arm in the crash.

The Spirit was on an eight-day cruise of the western Caribbean that left Miami on Nov. 27. Gallagher said the train excursion would be discontinued indefinitely until the accident was investigated. The train was run by the Panama Canal Railway Co., which is co-owned by Kansas City Southern Industries and Mi-Jack Products of Hazelcrest, Ill.

Judi Dash