pick -up destroyed by Amtrack train, photo courtesy of the Charlestown Fire Department
by Nancy Shack, WBZ NewsRadio1030
CHARLESTOWN, NH (WBZ NewsRadio) — Police in Charlestown, New Hampshire say that Sunday night an Amtrak train carrying 74 people slammed into a pickup truck that had crashed onto the tracks after the driver had gotten out. Then a second train hit the scene causing debris to go flying into a fire engine responding to the accident.
According to authorities, the truck went over the guardrail landing on the railroad track. The driver was able to get out and went to the local hospital with minor injuries. That's when the "Amtrak Vermonter No. 54" came through smashing into the abandon pickup. No one on the train was hurt.
Passengers were taken off the and bused to the Amtrak station in Bellows Falls, Vermont as police requested train traffic on the line be stopped for the accident re-construction. That's when train number two came down the tracks sending debris into the responding fire engine causing another person to be injured. They too were taken to a local hospital.
Officials are still investigating.