Anyone who travels regularly on Amtrak from Chicago to Detroit has a story or two about a major delay. But on Sunday, there was even a bigger problem: The train derailed near Niles, Mich., injuring nine, though none too seriously.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the train derailed after it traveled over a misaligned track switch, sending it into a rail yard.
The Trib reported:
The train, which Amtrak said was outfitted with an event recorder, was traveling about 60 mph when it hit the misaligned track switch, a railroad source said. The engineer was thrown to the floor but managed to throw the train into emergency braking mode, the source said.
The paper also reported that the National Transportation Safety Board said the train stopped only 21 feet before it would have hit parked freight hopper cars.
