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American Morning

Amtrak Train Jumps Tracks, Four Killed

Aired April 19, 2002 - 07:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, on today's other top story. At least four people are dead after an Amtrak train derailed in northeastern Florida yesterday. Many of the passengers were trapped inside the wreckage for hours and scores were injured. And the 41-car auto train was bound for Virginia, when all but six cars jumped the track in Putnam County, Florida.

Amtrak is still investigating the accident, and CNN's Mark Potter is on the scene. He joins us live with the very latest -- good morning, Mark.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Indeed, investigators are here now. The federal investigators arrived here a couple of hours ago. They are trying to figure out why this derailment occurred. We are told that they do not know yet, but there are some interesting facts that have come out so far.

One, we were told, that yesterday morning, the officials who own the track actually inspected this area and found it to be OK, and this was hours before the derailment occurred. And most interestingly, the Florida Highway Patrol says that right before the derailment occurred, the engineer of this train performed a full emergency stop. In other words, he hit the brakes. We don't know why that occurred, but he is OK, we are told, and will be talking to investigators and maybe that information will come out later.

Now, behind me, you can see the very dramatic scene here. This is the back end of the derailment area. The 14 cars derailed, and the bad news is that almost all of them were passenger cars filled with people. These are the diners, the sleepers, the coach cars, and they were filled with passengers, many of them elderly. And it was a terrible scene.

The Amtrak numbers right now say about 453 people were aboard, 28 crewmembers, and as you said, the number now for those killed is four. There was some controversy about that. There was confusion about that, the number six overnight, but now we are told by the Florida Highway Patrol that that number is four; about 130 people injured and taken to area hospitals. The rest of the people were taken to a high school to be cared for, and then put in hotels.

This was a major rescue effort. It ended at about sundown, and so now we are into the investigation trying to figure out why this very dramatic and tragic and deadly accident occurred -- Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks, Mark -- appreciate that live update.

Let's turn to Jack now for more on this story.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Paula, thanks.

The train is one of those that make a run between Orlando and Washington, D.C., and it's the kind that you can put your automobile on. So it's heavily used by families that go back and forth between Disney World and the tourist sites in Washington, D.C. And so, it's not unusual, although it might in this case be just a little early in the school year, but it's not unusual to have a lot of kids aboard this particular train as it makes that run to Disney World, you know, family attractions.

Joining us from the scene of the crash, Lieutenant William Leeper, the Florida Highway Patrol -- Lieutenant, good morning -- nice to have you with us.

LT. WILLIAM LEEPER, FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL: Good morning.

CAFFERTY: Can you describe what you were confronted with? You were one of the early people on the scene there. Give us a sense of what it was like walking into the middle of this thing.

LEEPER: Well, you can imagine the mass confusion that took place after the derailment, a lot of people coming to rescue, a lot of agencies involved in the rescue effort from the surrounding counties. A lot of coordination had to take place, and everything ran smoothly. People remained calm, and everything went well.

CAFFERTY: What's priority one when you come upon a disaster of this magnitude? I mean, how do you begin to get your arms around it?

LEEPER: Of course, number one, you've got to take care of the injured first, and then preserve the scene and start your investigation to determine why it happened. We did that, preserved everything. NTSB has arrived, starting their investigation. So once that gets completed, then we can begin to remove the wreckage.

CAFFERTY: Were there a lot of kids aboard this train?

LEEPER: There were some children on the train. Most of the passengers were elderly. However, there were some small children and about three infants on board.

CAFFERTY: How many people were trapped in these cars? Almost all of the cars went off the tracks and 14 of them actually tipped over. So you must have had a lot of people trapped inside them. There must have been a sense of panic among some of those who couldn't get out perhaps?

LEEPER: Well, 14 of the cars derailed. Some of those got out, some of them were actually ejected out, and some had to be helped out of the cars that were overturned. So it was a very good rescue effort as far as those that got out in a timely fashion, orderly fashion, and not a lot of confusion took place at that time.

CAFFERTY: How heavily populated is the Putnam County area where this happened? And I asked that question in the sense to what degree were the resources necessary to handle this available? How much did this tax the law enforcement, the rescue, the fire, the ambulance people who had to respond to this thing?

LEEPER: Well, it's a rural area where the crash occurred. Government officials in this general area got on the scene very quickly. However, they had to call for help from surrounding counties, which it took a while for them to get here. But all of the surrounding areas pitched in, helped out, and it all went well.

CAFFERTY: I assume this route is closed. Has anybody told you, or do you have any indication of how soon this wreckage will be removed and this run reopened to traffic?

LEEPER: As soon as NTSB concludes their investigation, we'll get some cranes in to remove the cars that have been overturned, maybe look for other bodies. Hopefully, we won't find any. And then remove those cars and get the track opened.

CAFFERTY: All right. Lieutenant, appreciate you being with us -- thanks very much. Lieutenant William Leeper of the Florida State Police -- thank you.

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