4 killed, as many as 150 injured in Amtrak train hits dump truck, derails in Missouri

MENDON, Mo. -- Four people are dead and approximately 150 are injured after an Amtrak train derailed after hitting a dump truck that was in an uncontrolled public crossing in Mendon, Missouri, according to Amtrak and officials.

Eight passenger cars and two locomotives derailed at about 12:42 p.m. local time, Amtrak said.

Authorities confirmed Tuesday that a third passenger was killed, along with someone who was in the dump truck.

Video shows the aftermath after an Amtrak train derailed when it hit a "truck that was obstructing a public crossing" in Mendon, Missouri, according to Amtrak.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol tweeted Tuesday that approximately 150 people were injured.

"It was something that you never think is going to happen, but when it does happen, it's far worse than anything you could have imagined," Jason Drinkard, a passenger on the train, told ABC affiliate station KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri.

Drinkard, a high school teacher, said he was traveling with his wife and six students to Chicago for a conference, when the crash occurred. He described seeing the "carnage," with injured passengers and crew unable to walk.

The train was en route from Los Angeles to Chicago with 243 passengers and 12 crew members on board at the time of the crash, Amtrak said. All the train occupants from the scene were evacuated, according to Dunn.

Dozens of people have been hospitalized. Officials at Hendrick Medical Center accepted seven patients from the scene, while officials at MU Health Care University Hospital/Columbia said its facility was treating 16 patients as of 10 p.m. ET. Pershing Memorial Hospital received between 15 and 20 people from the accident.

Passenger Rob Nightingale describes what happened when his car tipped to the side during an Amtrak train derailment in Mendon, Missouri.

Passenger Rob Nightingale, 58, told ABC News his train car tipped to the side and he climbed through a window to escape. He said he saw a little girl crying and her family trying to comfort her.

Some people were covered in blood, he added.

Aboard the train were two Boy Scout troops from Appleton, Wisconsin, that sprang into action, breaking windows and helping to evacuate passengers, two of the scouts' mothers told ABC affiliate station WBAY in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The scouts even attempted to save the life of the dump truck driver, the mothers, Sarah Berken and Nicole Tierney, said.

MORE: Boy Scouts jump into action after Amtrak train derailment

Two Boy Scout troops on board the Amtrak train that derailed in Missouri jumped into action to assist the injured and comfort shaken passengers and crew members, WBAY reports.

Berken and Tierney said they both described a nerve-racking period of time between learning of the crash and hearing that their sons survived the crash without injuries.

"Until I heard from my son an hour later, that he was OK, I couldn't stop shaking or crying," Berken said.

Tierney added, "It was a phone call that no parent should ever have to receive. It was probably way up there on the scariest moments of my life."

Scott Armstrong, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, told WBAY there were 16 scouts, ages 13 to 17, and eight adult chaperones who were returning home from a week-long backpacking trip at a wilderness camp in New Mexico. He said two of the adult chaperones were injured, one suffering broken ribs and a bruised lung and the other suffering a cracked vertebrae.

Missouri Public Safety officials, highway patrol troopers and other personnel were dispatched to the scene, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson tweeted.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it launched a 14-member go-team to investigate the crash. The team is scheduled to arrive Tuesday.

Mendon is about 100 miles northeast of Kansas City, Missouri.

This comes one day after an Amtrak train collided with a car in California, killing three people.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement, "My thoughts are with the victims and families affected by today's Missouri train derailment and the Northern California collision that occurred over the weekend. I have been updated on these crashes and my team is in communication with Amtrak and the relevant authorities."

FRA personnel are en route to Mendon, where they will support NTSB investigators, he added.

ABC News' Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.

A look at recent Amtrak derailments and other crashes

By The Associated Press

• June 26, 2022: Three people in a car were killed when an Amtrak commuter train smashed into their vehicle in Northern California. No one in the train was injured.
• Sept. 26, 2021: Three people died and others were injured when an Amtrak derailed in north-central Montana as it traveled from Chicago to Seattle.
• Dec. 18, 2017: Three people were killed and 10 seriously injured in a derailment near Olympia, Washington, in which part of the train landed on Interstate 5. The train was traveling more than 80 mph during its inaugural run of a newly opened, faster rail line when it left the tracks.
• April 3, 2016: Two maintenance workers were struck and killed by train going more than 100 mph in Chester, Pennsylvania. The lead engine of the train derailed.
• March 14, 2016: A train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago derailed in southwest Kansas, injuring at least 32 people. Investigators concluded a cattle feed delivery truck hit the track and shifted it at least a foot before the derailment.
• Oct. 5, 2015: A train headed from Vermont to Washington, D.C., derailed when it hit rocks that had fallen onto the track from a ledge. Seven people were injured.
• May 12, 2015: A train traveling at twice the 50 mph speed limit derailed as it entered a sharp curve in Philadelphia. Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured.