Amtrak: Two days, two wrecks

A fatal Amtrak crash in Plant City is 8 miles from Monday's.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO, S.I. ROSENBAUM and MIKE BRASSFIELD, Times staff writers
Published July 18, 2007

An Amtrak train carrying approx 133 people derailed just east of downtown Plant City. Six people were hurt and one killed when a tow type truck crossed the track in front of westbound train headed for Tampa. Video: Monday's crash
	[Times photo: Skip O'Rourke]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Skip O'Rourke] Analiese Barnes and her little sister Zaria White, 8, leave the scene of the deadly train accident. They were heading down US Highway 92 near Park Road with their luggage after departing the Amtrak. "It was really scary, it was loud," said White as she walked. [Times photo: Skip O'Rourke] Both locomotives and all nine passenger cars rolled off their rails, with at least two cars tipping partway over, said Eugene Shuler, Plant City Fire Rescue operations chief. The train was evacuated.

PLANT CITY -- A passenger train collided with a container truck Tuesday, killing the driver and leaving 133 passengers emotionally and physically shaken after all nine railcars and two locomotives slid off the tracks.

Michael Dale Hill, 34, a father of two, was headed north across the railroad tracks on U.S. 92 near Park Road in Plant City at 3:13 p.m. Witnesses said the Amtrak train blew its whistle and slammed on its brakes but could not avoid the noisy, smoky crash that followed.

Eighteen people from the train were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries.

This was the second time in two days that an Amtrak train collided with a vehicle in the area. Four people in a car were killed Monday when the driver ignored crossing barriers and drove into the path of an Amtrak train carrying 161 passengers in Lakeland, just 8 miles away.

On Tuesday, Hill had loaded his truck with aluminum at Universal Structures Inc., 2291 W U.S. 92, before the crash. Hill of 4902 Miley Road in Plant City died at the scene, said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins.

The train rolled past the vehicle as it tried to stop, leaving the demolished truck a mangled mess, its frame 150 to 200 feet behind the train.

Both locomotives and all nine passenger cars rolled off their rails, with at least two cars tipping partway over, said Eugene Shuler, Plant City Fire Rescue operations chief. The train was evacuated.

"A regular old nightmare," passenger JoAnn Channell of Brandon said, still shaken two hours later as she waited for her father to pick her up at a nearby ballpark. "I don't think I'll ever be right again."

The crash led to two minor fires -- one in the train and a brushfire in the surrounding grassy, wooded area.

Hill was going over a private crossing leading to the Universal Structures' access road. It has no signal arm, lights or bells.

As Hill edged out onto the tracks, the train was right there, Coggins said.

A check of Hillsborough County records showed no traffic citations for Hill in the county.

Dozens of friends and relatives gathered at Hill's shaded home in the country as word of the accident spread before sundown. Relatives described Hill as a good husband and father of two young daughters, but his father-in-law said the family was too grief-stricken to talk publicly about Hill just yet.

The quiet gathering of family and friends in mourning was far from the chaos several miles south, where the train wreck sent its hundred-plus passengers searching for family, luggage and answers.

Barbara May, 60, of Detroit was traveling home from Fort Lauderdale with family members. Suddenly the train started jerking -- "shake and bake," May said. The family could see a solid wall of smoke and brown dust rushing through the train toward them. She told her children, "Don't panic."

Her daughter Tyshona Jackson, 16, was talking on the phone with a friend as the train started to shake, and passengers in the car fell as it started to tip over. "Are you okay?" her friend asked over the phone. "I'm going to call you back," Tyshona said.

May, relieved to be alive, said she never had time to be frightened. "I didn't think about being scared," she said.

Their passenger car, the fourth one on the train, ended up tilted at a 60 to 70 degree angle. Passengers tumbled out of the car, but they all seemed to be okay, she said.

Passengers from the train were crowded into the nearby Family Bowl bowling alley while rescue officials assessed the situation. The bowling alley provided drinks, food and shelter from the blazing sun.

Emergency responders from Plant City Fire Rescue shuttled passengers with local connections to Mike Sansone Community Park. They waited under threatening skies where gnats swarmed and luggage seemed out of place.

"Where are you?" Jessica Rivers, 29, demanded into a borrowed cell phone as she jumped out of her car, driving around the ballpark nervously searching for her boyfriend. He was due in from Miami and she had been called out of class at the International Academy of Design with the news he had been in a train wreck.

Rivers said she had a premonition the night before that this was going to happen. "Exactly in this spot," she said.

The Amtrak train No. 92, on the Silver Star line en route from Miami to New York City, was headed westbound to Tampa to pick up passengers for its run to New York.

The train was due to arrive in Tampa at 3:30 p.m. but crashed just before 3:15 p.m., officials said. About 40 to 50 people spent a couple of hours waiting at the Ybor City train station with their luggage, awaiting word on when they would depart.

By 5:30 p.m., railroad officials devised a plan for dealing with the stranded passengers.

Those who were on the derailed train were bused to Orlando, put up in a hotel for the night, and scheduled for a New York-bound train today.

Passengers on the derailed train whose destination was Tampa were to be brought the last few miles by bus, according to the station manager at Tampa's Union Station, while others were picked up by relatives.

The accident also blocked the path of a southbound train, Amtrak 91 bound for Miami. Railroad officials said those passengers would be taken by bus to Miami.

After Tuesday's wreck, Ruth Tendrich, 85, who is blind, was carried over the tracks by a stranger after the jostled train tossed her from her seat. Her 86-year-old husband, Max, grabbed two of their bags filled with medicine, grateful for the help of the younger man.

"I couldn't have carried her," he said. The train derailment was only the latest upset in a long day of travel for the two Boynton Beach residents. Originally headed to Orlando, they accidentally got on the wrong train Wednesday morning on their way to visit friends.

Eduardo Whaite, 16, of Venezuela was jolted from sleep when he heard the train's brakes, felt the crash and was overtaken by the odor of gasoline.

"I thought I was going to die," he said.

Passengers grabbed their bags and started running for the exits, many screaming and crying.

"It was terrifying," Analiese Barnes, 18, of Wesley Chapel said. She and her 8-year-old sister, Zaria White, boarded in Fort Lauderdale, where they had been visiting their grandmother, and were headed home.

Zaria said she started to cry.

JoAnn Channell, the Brandon passenger who found herself stranded at a Plant City ballpark, said it was the first time she had taken a train since she was 4 years old.

A friend convinced her it would be a terrific way to get to her daughter in Boca Raton -- chill out, listen to CDs, relax.

But after the crash, she said she would never do it again. "I know I'm going to need a psychologist," she said.

Times researcher John Martin and staff writer Kevin Graham contributed to this report.

Fast Facts: Train accidents
Train accidents, including derailments and crashes at road crossings, in Florida for Amtrak and other railroads.

* Through April 30

Source: Federal Railroad Administration

[Last modified July 18, 2007, 01:10:05]