Three people were killed and one was injured after an Amtrak train struck a car at a railroad crossing in South Carolina on Saturday, local authorities said.
According to the Charlotte Observer, the Amtrak passenger train crashed into the vehicle at about 2:30 a.m. in North Charleston at a Remount Road crossing, a statement from the North Charleston Fire Department said.
Deputy Chief Stephanie Julazadeh said firefighters and North Charleston Police officers arrived on scene to discover a car with heavy damage off the road, as well as an Amtrak train that had stopped at the railroad crossing after striking the vehicle.
First responders found four people near the damaged vehicle and immediately performed medical assessments, WCSC reported.
The deputy chief said three of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The fourth person received medical treatment from firefighters before being transported to a local hospital by Charleston County EMS.
NBC News reported that the train was carrying roughly 500 passengers, and officials said none of them were injured.
Authorities are investigating the crash. As of Saturday morning, it is unclear what cause the collision.
This isn’t the first deadly Amtrak accident to take place in South Carolina. In 2018, two people were killed and at least 70 were injured after an Amtrak passenger train collided with a CSX freight train, officials said.
The train was en route from New York to Miami, and 147 people were on board.
At least 70 people were injured and brought to the hospital, Lexington County spokesman Harrison Cahill told CNN, adding that injuries ranged anywhere from “scratches to broken bones.”
Authorities said roughly 5,000 gallons of fuel was spilled due to the collision. At the time, it was the third major Amtrak train crash in around three months, and the second deadly crash in only one week.
