ABC news 1:34 pm EST 2/4/18:
Amtrak may have been on wrong track in crash that killed 2, but it says freight line controls signals
A Miami-bound Amtrak train appeared to be on the wrong track when it collided with a freight train in South Carolina early Sunday morning, killing two people and injuring 116, according to authorities, but officials with the passenger railroad said the freight line controls signaling and dispatch on the rails.
The two people who died were the train conductor and engineer, the county coroner said.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said at a news conference that a CSX freight train appeared to be on a loading track when the Amtrak train with 147 people aboard slammed into it at 2:35 a.m. in Cayce, South Carolina, just east of Columbia.
SNIP
The two Amtrak employees killed Sunday are 54-year-old Michael Kempf, the train engineer, and 36-year-old Michael Cella, the train conductor, said Margaret Fisher, coroner for Lexington County, South Carolina. Kempf was from Savannah, George, and Cella from Orange Park, Florida, Fisher said.
Continue here w/video report.
My thoughts:
Is the SC Governor 'qualifified' to state "It appears that the Amtrak was on the wrong track, . . ."?
Unusual that the Amtrak conductor was riding in the cab. We may learn later that the second person was not the conductor for this train.
-Ross