Crime & Safety
Amtrak Train Derails In Savannah Following Rare Snowfall (Video)
Silver Meteor train 98 was backing slowly into the Savannah station around 10 p.m. when two sleeper cars and a baggage car derailed.
SAVANNAH, GA — Three Amtrak train cars carrying hundreds of passengers derailed in Savannah, Georgia late Wednesday, hours after the city — which is normally balmy this time of year — received more than an inch of snow. Silver Meteor train 98, which left Miami and was bound for New York, was backing slowly into the Savannah station around 10 p.m. when a pair of sleeper cars and a baggage car derailed, said Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams.
The cars were carrying more than 300 passengers and crewmembers but no injuries were reported.
"All three cars — a baggage car and two sleeper cars — are fully upright," Abrams said in an email statement on Thursday morning.
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The main train was to continue traveling north, Abrams said, but some of the sleeping car passengers had to be put aboard a different train.
He didn't say what caused the derailment and the statement didn't indicate whether the snow storm that blanketed Savannah with a rare snowfall contributed to the incident.
Find out what's happening in Savannahfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
It was Savannah's first measurable snowfall since February 2010, the National Weather Service said, and the first time that more than an inch fell in the city in 28 years.
News footage from the site showed police and other emergency vehicles with flashing lights crunching over snow and ice and converging near tracks where the derailment occurred.
BREAKING: An Amtrak train with at least 300 passengers on board has derailed near the Savannah Station on Seabord Coastline Drive. #amtrakderailment | @WSAVDariusJ https://t.co/1UyRdjQi6u
— Periscope TV News (@PeriscopeTVNews) January 4, 2018
Passenger Joel Potischman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he boarded the train early in the day in Delray Beach, Fla., to head home to Brooklyn, New York. He said the train was en route north amid winter scenes of snow and ice.
Another passenger, Mike Zevon, told the newspaper that it was the last three cars that derailed.
Abrams' statement didn't elaborate on how many cars were in the formation and conditions with the weather or the tracks at the time.
The derailment comes just weeks after an Amtrak passenger train derailed in Washington state, leaving three dead and dozens injured.
Photos credit: WTOC via AP