UPDATE AS OF 11PM MONDAY:
Amtrak says work will continue on the track overnight.
Passengers who were scheduled to take the first two trains out of Bakersfield Tuesday morning, will be bussed to Hanford.
Passengers on later trains may also have to take a bus depending on the speed of repairs.
If you have questions, call 1-800-USA-RAIL.
(Original script)
About 169 passengers and four crew members were on board Amtrak train #712 when it left Oakland around 7:30 a.m. Monday. The train made a stop in Hanford and left for Bakersfield just after noon when, investigators say, a semi ran into the side of the train at a railroad crossing.
The train was supposed to arrive in Bakersfield at 1:41 p.m. At least 20 passengers suffered minor to moderate injuries. Amtrak officials say the train was made up of four rail cars and a locomotive.
The crash caused a big delay for travelers at the Bakersfield Amtrak Station.
"The wait here has been very, very, very uncomfortable,” says Andree Howard, who was traveling to Fresno for a funeral. “We have to wait here, and then on the way here from Lancaster to Bakersfield, our bus didn't even have any air."
Some travelers said they've waited more than four hours. The Amtrak Station lobby was filled with dozens of frustrated travelers waiting for buses to take them to their next stop.
"I really wasn't told anything. After the lines being held up for two hours, she got on the intercom and said that there was nothing she could do,” says Brianna Luckett, who was headed to Fresno. “We're just scattered out and people are sitting around, and we're just waiting for, you know, I don't know what we're waiting for, but we're waiting."
Amtrak announcers said buses coming from Los Angeles would transport many of the people waiting to get to their destinations.
“We’re praying for those concerned,” says Carlos Taylor, who was headed to Sacramento. “It could’ve been any one of us, and so we don’t mind the wait. We try to be patient and bear with the situation at hand, however we’re looking to get home.”
Some passengers aboard the Amtrak train that was hit by the semi, arrived in downtown Bakersfield around 5 p.m. Many said they were fine, but shaken from the crash.
Cindy Smith was headed to Oceanside. She says she’s thankful she was in the first train car and barely felt the impact. "I was looking out the window when I saw this truck coming really fast, and I said 'oh that truck's not going to stop.' I saw it swerve and then it tipped over,” Smith says. “I said 'oh no, I guess it missed us.' I was in the front, in the only one that didn't tip over, and all of the sudden, we jerked stopped."
She says the two train cars to the rear felt the most impact from the semi. Joanna Pickering was also in the first car and says they were told the truck was trying to beat the train and the driver slammed on his brakes before colliding.
"It was amazingly calm and it was the engineer who was actually more worried,” Pickering says. “We could tell there was something really wrong when he came up and said 'I need everyone to stay on board so that we can get this all straightened out because it's really bad, really, really bad'."
Several buses picked up many of the passengers in Bakersfield waiting to get home.
