At Least 2 Killed and Nearly 70 Injured in Amtrak Collision With Freight Train

An Amtrak train traveling from New York to Miami collided with a freight train early Sunday, killing at least two people and injuring at least 70 others, according to police officials.

Amtrak said Train 91, which was carrying eight crew members and 139 passengers, collided with a CSX train near Cayce, S.C., around 2:35 a.m. “The lead engine derailed, as well as some passenger cars,” Amtrak said in a statement.

The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department in South Carolina said on Twitter that at least two people had been killed and that emergency crews were tending to at least 50 injured.

Local media reports said the authorities were working to clean up about 5,000 gallons of fuel that had spilled because of the crash, the cause of which was not immediately clear. The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that investigators were on their way to the collision site.

The Red Cross said on Twitter that “disaster trained volunteers” were responding at the scene of the accident. The South Carolina Emergency Management Division said it was also responding to the accident.

The train, operating Amtrak’s Silver Star service, originated at Pennsylvania Station in New York and was bound for Miami, according to news reports. The Lexington Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter that the crash occurred near Charleston Highway and Pine Ridge Road close to Pine Ridge, S.C.

It was the second major crash involving an Amtrak train in less than a week. On Wednesday, a train carrying Republican members of Congress to a retreat in West Virginia hit a garbage truck in rural Virginia, killing a passenger in the truck.

Two other passengers from the truck were injured — one seriously — and hospitalized. Two members of the train’s crew and at least two passengers, including Representative Jason Lewis, Republican of Minnesota, were also hospitalized with minor injuries.

Republicans had chartered the train to carry them from Washington to the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia, where the party was holding its annual policy retreat. Several lawmakers who were on the train estimated that more than half of the Republican members of the House and Senate, including Speaker Paul D. Ryan, were on board, and that many were accompanied by their spouses.

In December, a passenger train on a newly opened Amtrak route jumped the tracks on an overpass south of Tacoma, Wash., slamming rail cars into a busy highway, killing at least three people and injuring about 100 others.

In 2015, an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia, killing eight people and injuring more than 200. A Pennsylvania judge dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against the Amtrak engineer, saying it appeared to be an accident and not the result of criminal negligence.

After the crash on Sunday, Amtrak posted on Twitter: “Individuals with questions regarding passengers on train 91 can contact us at 1.800.523.910.”