• August 19, 1991
• Vol. 36
• No. 6

Horror on the Rails

By Paula Chin

After the Amtrak Silver Star Jumps the Tracks in South Carolina, Shaken Survivors Recall a Nightmare of Death and Destruction

It was nearly 5:01 A.M. when the Amtrak Silver Star, bound from Miami to New York City, went by Camden, S.C., in a warm, predawn drizzle. Most of its 372 passengers were asleep, rocking to the train's gentle rhythm. As the Silver Star flew past the Du Pont textile plant in Lugoff, the last six cars of the 18-car train jumped the track at 77 mph, scraping through the gravel before slamming into six freight cars on an adjacent siding. The side of one passenger car was sheared off, the steel crumpling like foil, and two others were punctured, showering glass and metal on passengers, who were thrown from their seats into the aisles and out windows. Five men and two women died, and 84 people were injured, 10 of them critically. What follows are eyewitness accounts of the disaster.

DAVID FREEMAN, 26, a Miami car-wash owner traveling in the third-to-last car:

I was wakened by a loud explosion; I thought somebody had hit me in the head. I was thrown to the aisle and onto another chair. There was another bang, and I was thrown against the window, then left, then right. I grabbed a handle and the window popped out. Metal and plastic, fiberglass and pieces of things were flying around the train. Then I hit the window ledge so hard that most of my body was thrown outside, but my left arm and leg were still inside the train. I was praying the train would stop. I saw sparks coming up from the wheels. I couldn't hold on anymore, and I fell.

APRIL EGISTER, 48, a nurse's aide from Boston:

[When I boarded in Columbia, S.C,] they told me to take seat 28, in the very last coach, which was next to the wall. I asked the lady in the aisle seat next to me, who could see out the window in the row ahead, if she could switch so I could wave goodbye to my family. But she said no. I'm sitting forward [about 45 minutes later] when the train starts dancing all over the track. Stuff started to sting me and debris burst through the window. I thought the train was going to turn over. Then it slopped.

RORERT JOHNSON, 47, director of Kershaw County's Emergency Medical Service:

I was home asleep when I got the call around 5:15 saying there was a possible derailment. Once we arrived, we saw the front of the train. It looked great, then I noticed the tilt. As we began to look for the injured, we saw there were people all over the ground. As my paramedics began reporting to me, I realized anyone who was able to walk or move was outside. We had to focus on people trapped inside.

DAVID FREEMAN:

I stayed on the ground a few minutes. Blood was coming out of my mouth, and I heard a ringing in my left ear. Then I heard people crying inside the train and got up. The side was torn off, and I saw this man sitting next to the window, screaming. I asked his name, and he said, "Paul." [Miami police officer Paul Palank.] There was lots of debris on his chest and leg, and he couldn't breathe too well. I tried to pull the metal off, but it was so sharp it cut my finger. I knew I couldn't help him. I could see the bone from his leg and said, "Don't look down." He didn't understand. He just kept saying his name over and over.

JEFF MULLEIN, 19, who was returning home to Smyrna, Del.:

I saw a man I'd sat next to the night before [Palank]. He was cut on his legs, his arm, his head. A doctor who was a passenger tied off most of his arteries, and another guy was trying to help too. I talked to him, saying, "Paul, stay with us. Come on, buddy." He was passing in and out of consciousness; it was all he could do to try to open his eyes. The paramedics got there just before he died.

APRIL EGISTER:

I saw the lady next to me bent over down on the floor, and the man who had been in front of her was laying across her with his mouth and eyes open. I reached over and took his pulse but didn't feel anything. I started screaming. I was positive these people were gone. I started reciting the 23rd Psalm. Then a passenger was pulling me over the seat and led me toward the back door. I fainted, but he brought me back to, helped me to the ground, put blankets around me. He was fantastic.

ROBERT JOHNSON:

We were moving seats, luggage and bodies, trying to get to people. Some were literally wedged between seats. We had to take them on spine boards and lower them through the windows. On one side of the train the metal was all torn out, just like a cave-in. On the other side, bodies were thrown everywhere, in every position. The very last car took the most impact and the more severe injuries. Six of the seven DOAs were found there. We lost one person while trying to get him out. That was the hardest of all.

JACK KRIBBS, 42, a physician at Kershaw County Memorial Hospital:

There were a lot of lacerations, a lot of people with head and neck injuries. But what made a big impression on me was the emotional trauma. Some people had watched others die, and that was the most stressful—their descriptions and feelings of helplessness.

APRIL EGISTER:

I've always loved the train, but it will be a very long time before I ride one again. I'm shaky—I wake with nightmares, screaming. I've never had anything like this happen to me. I'm so happy I'm alive.

PAULA CHIN
LUCHINA FISHER in Camden, KATY KELLY in Washington, D.C.

• Contributors:
• Luchina Fisher,
• Katy Kelly.