Eight Slightly Injured In Amtrak Derailment

Eight people suffered minor injuries late Monday afternoon when an Amtrak passenger train carrying 108 passengers derailed west of Cheyenne.

The train, Amtrak’s Pioneer running from Chicago to Seattle through southern Wyoming, derailed about 4 p.m. The cause of the derailment, which - occurred about 28 miles west of Cheyenne near an area known as Granite Canyon, was not immediately known.

All 12 cars in the train, including the locomotive, left the railroad tracks but did not overturn.

“It was a pretty smooth ride, then all of the sudden we were moving up and down and side to side,” said Russell Noble, who was returning to Rock Springs, Wyo., in anticipation of the birth of his daughter.

He said he saw the passenger cars in front of his jackknife and heard the sound of shrieking metal.

Eight people were taken to a hospital by ambulance.

The other passengers remained on board the derailed train about two hours until buses arrived to transport them to a Cheyenne hotel.

Martin Yurth, an Amtrak agent at the scene, said one person may have suffered some broken ribs and another complained of chest pains.

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