American Notes Disasters

Amtrak's Miami-New York Silver Star was barreling through a predawn rainstorm at 77 m.p.h. when the last six cars suddenly jumped the tracks and slammed into two freight cars parked on a siding. While none of the passenger cars turned over, 25 ft. of the Silver Star's stainless-steel skin was peeled back, ripping out seats and killing five men and two women. "Glass and metal were flying in," said Dave Elmers, a passenger from West Palm Beach, Fla. "It just opened up that train like a sardine can." Said Steven Clark, a passenger from Philadelphia who was thrown from the train by the collision: "It was devastating."

The derailment, near Camden, S.C., injured at least 78 passengers. It was the worst Amtrak accident since 1987, when 16 were killed in a wreck in Chase, Md., and is the nation's eighth train wreck in two months. The cause of the disaster is still unknown, but officials from the National Transportation Safety Board suspect a faulty switch on the track. Declared New York passenger Ann Jo Rob: "This was my first time on a train. And this is my last time."