For Jason Drinkard and his students, passengers aboard a packed Amtrak train that derailed in Missouri on Monday, the day started off with a buzz of excitement.
The social studies teacher and his wife Amanda were taking a group of six students from Pleasant Ridge High School in Easton, Kansas, to Chicago to attend and compete in the Future Business Leaders of America’s three-day National Leadership Conference.
“My kids were super stoked about this,” he told The Independent. “As they got closer and closer, you could feel the excitement building. We were talking about what restaurants we were gonna go to, what sights we were going to see.”
Some of the students had been preparing for months for the business and entrepreneurship focused competition. For almost everyone in the group, it was their first time on the Amtrak.
The train was packed because it had arrived in Kansas City late, causing some travellers to stay on for extra time as they tried to catch a connection in Chicago. That meant Mr Drinkard and his students had to spread across two cars.
Then he heard the jolt.
“I looked out the left window and you just see this cloud of brown dust,” he said. “The next thing you know, you feel the car start tipping. Once it went over, it was one of those, you think, I can’t believe this is actually happening. For me everything was just in slow motion until it came to a rest.”
According to Amtrak officials, the train hit a dump truck on the tracks near the rural town of Mendon, Missouri, killing three people and injuring 50.
As the flipped rail cars ground to a halt, Mr Drinkard first checked on his wife, who was battered up but not grievously injured, then immediately began thinking about his students. He said the air was thick with fumes and the smell of hot metal, and he worried the train might catch fire or explode.
“It was just chaos,” he continued. “People were bleeding. People were banged up.”
The social studies teacher had spent time in the National Guard and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, and his training quickly kicked in. Once Amanda and his students climbed out of the overturned train through open windows, he began using his basic first aid skills to try and patch people up.
As he did so, someone called out from the train that there were people inside still bleeding, so he threw the supplies to them and set about helping elderly people move away from the derailment site towards emergency officials.
As first responders, including Missouri Highway Patrol troopers, converged on the scene, the roughly 243 passengers were taken to a local high school to recuperate, where Mr Drinkard says local residents made a “tremendous” effort, bringing in food and other supplies.
The group will no longer be heading to Chicago for the competition, but that’s fine for the teacher. He’s just glad things weren’t worse.
“I can’t fault Amtrak. It wasn’t like it was an issue with the tracks or anything. It was the fact that they hit a car that was trying to cross the tracks,” he said.
As shocked passengers return home, the Federal Railroad Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will now investigate the derailment, Amtrak’s second in two days, after a derailment in California killed three.
It will be a while, however, before Jason Drinkard takes another long train ride.
“At some point in time I probably will, but it won’t be any time soon.”
