What To Know About The Montana Train Derailment
Several passengers were rushed to Benefis Health System hospital in Great Falls, Montana while two others were taken to Logan Health hospital in Kalispell, Montana. Passengers took to twitter to thank the rural Montana community for their compassion.
“The locals have been so amazing and accommodating,” passenger Jacob Cordeiro said on Twitter. “They provided us with food, drinks, and wonderful hospitality. Nothing like it when the best comes together after a tragedy.”
Jacob Cordeiro was traveling with his father to Seattle to celebrate his graduation from college.
“I was in one of the front cars and we got badly jostled, thrown from one side of the train to the other,” Cordeiro told MSNBC. “I’m a pretty big guy and it picked me up from my chair and threw me into one wall and then threw me into the other wall.”
Railroad safety experts say there are several factors that must be investigated in Montana:
- A Faulty Rail Switch may have played a role in this accident. Accident scene photos show the derailment happened near a rail switch, which splits the railway from a single track to a double track.
- Defects in the railway. Even a small defect can be disastrous for railways. A minor shift can cause a rail to become unstable, leading to a derailment.
A Railroad spokesperson told the Associated Press that the track where the accident happened was recently inspected last week.