ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602190049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SILVER SPRING, MD.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
note: below
An Amtrak passenger train bound for Chicago and a local commuter train crashed head-on just north of the nation's capital during a snowstorm Friday, killing 12 people on the commuter train.
A massive roar, apparently an electrical explosion, followed the collision as the two Amtrak locomotives and several other cars jumped the tracks. One Amtrak locomotive and several passenger cars from the Maryland Rail Commuter train were engulfed in flames.
At least 21 people were injured in the fiery crash, officials said. Among the 17 commuter train passengers were 14 Job Corps trainees. Their fates were not immediately known.
``When the firefighters first arrived at the scene, there were people banging on the windows and trying to get out,'' said Lt. Denise Fox, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County, Md., fire department.
The dead were trapped in a car of the commuter train, victims of multiple trauma and fire, she said. None was immediately identified.
``There may be more, but for sure there are 12'' dead, Fox said. Local hospitals reported treating 21 people for injuries.
Lawrence Wilson, supervisor of the Labor Department's Jobs Corps Center at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., said 14 youths from the center were on the commuter train, returning to their homes in the Washington area on a weekend pass.
John Goglia, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said all 12 of the dead appear to have been riding in the first car of the commuter train. Goglia did not rule out the possibility of finding more victims.
Investigators were looking into a possible signal or switch malfunction on the tracks, owned and operated by CSX Transportation, as the cause of the accident. They also were examining the dispatching orders send by radio from CSX's headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla., said Deputy Transportation Secretary Mortimer Downey.
He said the Amtrak train had been switched to another track around a freight train just before the crash, but that it was unclear whether the Amtrak and commuter trains were on the same track.
The Washington Post reported that several passengers on the commuter train said it, too, had switched tracks, in northern Maryland. ``The conductor told us we had to pass an accident on another track,'' Damian Benitez, 19, of Philadelphia, told the Post.
Kelvin Williams, 19, of Seat Pleasant, Md., said there had been no sign of trouble until ``three conductors came out screaming, `Everybody get down!' And then we crashed. Everybody was crying and screaming.''
Mike Hall, a Montgomery County spokesman, said bodies of the dead were left in the wreck as investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board combed through the twisted steel.
Brian Hall, a volunteer firefighter, said passengers were panicking when he and another rescuer clambered aboard the Amtrak train.
``There were about 30 people in that particular car, who looked like they were in a total state of disarray,'' Hall said. ``We grabbed two or three of the more seriously injured ones and loaded them into ambulances.
``Some were yelling, just frantically yelling, because of the tremendous shock ... Others were just sitting there like they didn't know what had [happened].''
The collision occurred about 5:45 p.m.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Firefighters look for passengers aboard a Marylandby CNBRail Commuter Friday night in Silver Spring after two trains
collided. color
2. map showing location of wreck. color KRT KEYWORDS: FATALITY