68 passengers were injured Monday when their Amtrak train rear ended a CSX freight train in Salina, New York, just north of Syracuse. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board are on the scene of the collision today but have not yet released the cause of the wreck.
Passengers said the impact of the crash was like hitting a brick wall. The Amtrak Empire Service Train 286 was carrying 98 passengers from Niagara Falls to New York City, when it hit the freight train, not far from the Syracuse station. Some passengers reported seeing seats fly through the air when the train hit the 92-car CSX freighter. Seven members of RCIL were on the train headed to Albany to meet with state lawmakers and lobby for independent living issues.
RCIL director Todd Eggert, 48, of Rochester, suffered a broken ankle and a broken wrist as a result of the accident. Eggert, who is blind, was still at University Hospital in Syracuse Tuesday in fair condition.
Lisa Hoffman, 35, of Rochester, a disability rights advocate with RCIL, suffered a broken leg. Hoffman is also blind. She was last listed in fair condition at University Hospital on Tuesday.
Karen Burkin of RCIL said Tuesday, "Certainly they're lucky. It's not something you expect will happen. Lisa will be in the hospital a little longer. We're planning to send her flowers. We're praying for them."
Jean Penner of Fairport first learned of the train accident when her husband, Ben Penner, called her from the scene on his cell phone. Ben, 56, a disability rights advocate, was briefly knocked unconscious by the collision. He suffered a concussion and was treated and released from the hospital. Ben Presser's electric mobility scooter was damaged in the wreck.
Jean said, "When [Ben] came to he said there was a haze in the air, the smell of fuel oil, people spilled out of their wheelchairs, probably everybody wondering if the car was going to explode and they were probably not going to be able to do anything about it."
Also traveling in the RCIL group was Teresa Carroll, 35, of Rochester. Carroll is a quadriplegic and was thrown from her wheelchair in the crash. She was treated and released. Dan Sulimowicz, 30, of Rochester, who suffers from cerebral palsy, suffered a bruised elbow. Ben Penner, Carroll, and Sulimowicz stayed in a Syracuse hotel Monday night and will return home Tuesday.
The other two RCIL members on the train, John Bouchard, 56, and Craig Cielinski, 48, both of Fairport, were transported back to Rochester Monday night. Cielinski received stitches for a cut on his lip.
The RCIL group often travels to Albany to work on independent living issues, but this was the first time they had taken a train. Jean Penner said they usually travel by car or van.
Investigators said Monday that they hope to learn more from event recorders on the trains, which should show what the trains were doing and what the track signals were showing at the time of the collision.
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