NORTHFIELD, Vt.—An Amtrak train headed from Vermont to Washington, D.C., on Monday hit rocks that had fallen onto the track from a ledge, spilling the locomotive and a passenger car down an embankment, derailing three other cars, and injuring seven people, authorities said.
The Vermonter train, carrying 98 passengers and four crew members, derailed around 10:30 a.m. in Northfield, 20 miles southwest of Montpelier, they said.
“This was a freak of nature,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said.
One of the injured people was airlifted to a New Hampshire hospital and was being evaluated in its emergency room. The six others went to a local hospital with injuries including neck, back, and shoulder pains, and lightheadedness.
The Federal Railroad Administration said a crew member was seriously injured. Four hospitalized people were released by Monday evening, Amtrak said.
Passenger Bob Redmond, of Bay City, Michigan, was taking a foliage tour and sitting in the front row of the third car when the train derailed. He looked outside the window and saw the car that had been ahead of his was now alongside him.
“It was just going the other way, and we started tipping sideways and down we went,” he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating. It was sending a small team rather than the full-blown effort made for a fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia in May.
