An Amtrak train and a freight train collided in South Carolina early Sunday morning, killing at least two people and injuring about 70. Some other recent Amtrak derailments and crashes that caused injuries or deaths:
- Jan. 31, 2018: A chartered Amtrak train carrying Republican members of Congress to a strategy retreat crashed into a garbage truck at a rural Virginia crossing, killing one person in the truck and injuring two others. No serious injuries were reported on the train, and some lawmakers with medical experience offered assistance at the scene. The cause is under investigation; nearby residents have said the crossing arms had been known to malfunction.
- Dec. 18, 2017: Three people were killed and dozens of others were hurt when an Amtrak train derailed as it made its inaugural run along a new 15-mile (24-kilometer) bypass route in Washington state, en route from Tacoma to Portland, Oregon. The train was traveling at nearly 80 mph (128 kph) - more than twice the speed limit around a curve. The National Transportation Safety Board says an engineer told them he misjudged the train’s location.
- April 3, 2016: Two maintenance workers were struck and killed by an Amtrak train going more than 100 mph (160 kph) in Chester, Pennsylvania. The lead engine of the train derailed.
- March 14, 2016: An Amtrak train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago derailed in southwest Kansas, sending five cars off the tracks and injuring at least 32 people. Investigators concluded that a cattle feed delivery truck hit the track and shifted the train before its derailment.
- Oct. 5, 2015: A passenger train headed from Vermont to Washington, D.C., derailed when it hit rocks that had fallen onto the track from a ledge. The locomotive and a passenger car spilled down an embankment, derailing three other cars and injuring seven people.
- May 12, 2015: Amtrak Train 188 was traveling at twice the 50 mph (80 kph) speed limit as it entered a sharp curve in Philadelphia and derailed. Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured when the locomotive and four of the train’s seven passenger cars jumped the tracks. Several cars overturned and ripped apart.
- March 9, 2015: At least 55 people were injured when an Amtrak train bound from North Carolina to New Jersey derailed after colliding with an oversized tractor-trailer that was stuck on the tracks in Halifax, North Carolina.
- June 23, 2014: An Amtrak train hit a vehicle that was apparently driving on train tracks in Massachusetts, killing three people in the vehicle and derailing the train just before midnight in a remote area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Boston. None of the 180 people on board the train was injured.
- Oct. 21, 2012: About a dozen passengers and crew members on an Amtrak train from Chicago to Pontiac, Michigan, were injured when two locomotives and one or more coaches derailed after the train lost contact with the track near Niles, Michigan.
- Oct. 2, 2012: Two cars and the locomotive of an Amtrak train carrying about 169 passengers derailed after colliding with a semitrailer in California’s Central Valley. At least 20 passengers suffered minor to moderate injuries. The train was traveling from Oakland to Bakersfield.
- June 24, 2011: A truck slammed into the side of an Amtrak California Zephyr train at a rural crossing 70 miles (110 kilometers) east of Reno, Nevada, killing six people and injuring dozens. The train was traveling from Chicago to California.
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