Three dead after Amtrak train hits truck in Massachusetts

Three people were killed late Sunday in Massachusetts after a high-speed Amtrak train heading from Washington, D.C., to Boston slammed into a truck on the track, officials said.

Passengers were taken off the train following the crash and fire authorities were still trying to recover the three bodies from the truck, Mansfield Deputy Fire Chief Jim Puleo said in a video of the morning press conference.

The speed limit on the tracks in the area is 125 mph but it is unclear how fast the train was actually going Sunday night, said Deputy MBTA Transit Police Chief Kenneth Sprague at the news conference.

The crash happened in a heavily wooded area and left a large trail of debris, said Mansfield Police Chief Ronald Sellon.

“It is over a protracted area of land, in a very heavily wooded area, which means it is making the recovery efforts and the investigation very difficult,” he said.

It is unclear how the truck got onto the rails but Sellon said there are multiple access points all along the tracks for miles.

He said the truck was going north toward Boston.

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