A possibly more tragic accident, than what has already occurred, could have happened in Columbia, South Carolina, on Sunday February 4 when an Amtrak train travelling from New York City to Miami struck a stationary freight train when traveling on a wrong set of tracks. This crash left thousands of gallons of oil spilled at the scene with 2 casualties and over 100 injuries. Injuries ranged from the least damage, scratches, to the most intense, broken bones. This crash has intensified worries about citizens safety and the reliability of passenger rail services in the United States.

The collision occurred at 2:45 a.m. in Lexington County. The crash was a subject of a federal inquiry, but Amtrak’s chief executive, Richard H. Anderson, Says that a signal system was down and that the dispatchers from another company, CSX, were routing trains at the same time of the wreck. The Amtrak passenger train was diverted onto a rail where it crashed into the CSX train that has been loaded with automobiles. The Amtrak train at the time was heading south before diversion and was apparently traveling below the speed limit.

The two victims of the crash were later identified as Amtrak personnel. A 54-year-old engineer named Michael Kempf and a 32-year-old conductor, Michael Sella, were killed in the collision. The coroner of Lexington County, Margaret Fisher, states that “Any time you have anything that happens like that, you expect more fatalities, but God blessed us, and we only had the two.”

In this most recent fiscal year Amtrak is stronger than ever, posting a record-high ridership of about 31.7 million passenger trips. That is a lot of fans who’s mind could change because a series of fatal accidents in the recent months have triggered a lack of trust in confidence for this rail service.

Quote from Sarah Fierro: “The Amtrak train company seemed liked a great public commuting system but with all these recent string of events I’m not all to sure if they live up to the reputation they have recently built themselves”