Hotline #679-B

At 5:00 am today at Lugoff, S.C., Amtrak's northbound Silver Star, train 82/92, derailed. At a 5:00 pm press briefing at Washington Union Station, Amtrak President Graham Claytor said the best current estimate of fatalities is seven,* all passengers. Eighteen people remain hospitalized in the Columbia area; five of them are critically injured. Fifty-eight others were treated and released. A total of 426 passengers and crew were on board. Claytor called it a "terrible tragedy" and said he felt "very sad" for the injured passengers and families of the dead.

[*Note -- an eighth later died.]

Lugoff is just south of Camden. The derailment occurred on CSX tracks. The two locomotives and first 12 cars passed a correctly aligned switch beside an industrial siding. The last six cars -- a Heritage sleeper, Amfleet II lounge, three Amfleet II coaches for New York, and, at the rear, the Amfleet II coach for Chicago -- all from the Miami section of the Star, left the tracks at the switch. It has not yet been determined why the cars derailed at that point. The cars then struck a row of nine parked freight cars, which surely aggravated the number of casualties. At least two cars landed on their sides. It appears that most of the injured were in the Chicago coach.

An emergency shelter was set up at Camden High School. Buses were ordered for transporting passengers. The first group of buses containing uninjured passengers will arrive in Washington this evening around 9:00 pm. Amtrak will provide them with meals and a Metroliner special to take them further north. The second bus with passengers who were treated and released will arrive in Washington after midnight and they will be put up in hotels. The southbound Star will be routed through Charleston tonight. Amtrak has set up a toll-free number for family inquiries -- 800/424-7960.

The last passenger fatalities on Amtrak occurred during the Chase, Md., wreck on January 4, 1987, when 15 passengers died. The period since then is the longest period of time Amtrak has ever gone without a passenger fatality. Counting today, 46 passengers have died in Amtrak accidents over the course of 20+ years, resulting in a fatality rate far lower than the automobile's and still comparable to the airplane's.