Passenger train derails in US, no critical injuries reported

“We are aware of the derailment of train 55 in” Vermont, Amtrak tweeted. At least seven people were injured. The third died in a grade-crossing accident.

An Amtrak passenger train derailed Monday near Northfield, Vermont, injuring six people, officials said.

In this photo provided by Brian Bell, one of the cars of an Amtrak train is seen down an embankment after the train derailed, Monday, October 5, 2015, near Roxbury, Vt., about 20 miles southwest of Montpelier, Vt. The passenger’s condition is unknown, officials said at a Monday afternoon press conference. Gov. Peter Shumlin says, “This was a freak of nature”.

Montpelier Fire Department Lieutenant Dana Huoppi told Fox News the train had five cars, two of which went down an embankment.

One of the injured people was airlifted to a New Hampshire hospital and was being evaluated in its emergency room. Six others went to Central Vermont Medical Center with injuries including neck, back and shoulder pain and lightheadedness.

Federal investigators are on the scene.

The Vermonter train carrying 98 passengers and four crew members derailed at around 10:30 a.m.in Northfield, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Montpelier.

Redmond says he looked out the window and saw the vehicle that had been ahead of his was now alongside him.

“It was just going the other way, and we started tipping sideways and down we went”, he said.

Passengers helped others after the crash. In 2010, a train in Beijing hit mounds of debris left on the track following a landslide, killing 19 people.

Check back for details as they develop.

Federal investigators said the preliminary cause of the accident was a rock slide in the path of the train.

The incident came five months after the derailment of an Amtrak train near Philadelphia killed eight people and injured more than 200.

The remaining passengers were put on buses and taken to nearby Norwich University, a military college that acts as a Red Cross evacuation site. Amtrak says there are no life-threatening injuries reported.

One Twitter user, who identified himself as Brian Bell, posted photographs of a train pressed up against a pile of large rocks. The route passes through cities including Burlington, Vermont, Springfield, Massachusetts, and New York, with D.C.as the final destination.

Vermont State Police had no immediate details about injuries or reasons for the accident near Bull Run Road near Montpelier. “Emergency personnel are on the scene & we are assessing the situation”. According to the Amtrak website, the 13-hour, 45-minute daily trip begins in St. Albans in northern Vermont. An Amtrak train bound for New York City traveling at about 102 miles per hour in a 50 miles per hour stretch of track took a curve too fast, derailing the train.