Two Days, Two Train Wrecks in Florida

PLANT CITY - A passenger train collided with a container truck Tuesday, killing the driver and leaving 133 passengers emotionally and physically shaken after all nine railcars and two locomotives slid off the tracks.

Michael Dale Hill, 34, a father of two, was headed north across the railroad tracks on U.S. 92 near Park Road in Plant City at 3:13 p.m. Witnesses said the Amtrak train blew its whistle and slammed on its brakes but could not avoid the noisy, smoky crash that followed.

Eighteen people from the train were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries.

This was the second time in two days that an Amtrak train collided with a vehicle in the area. Four people in a car were killed Monday when the driver ignored crossing barriers and drove into the path of an Amtrak train carrying 161 passengers in Lakeland, just 8 miles away.

On Tuesday, Hill had loaded his truck with aluminum at Universal Structures Inc., 2291 W U.S. 92, before the crash. Hill of 4902 Miley Road in Plant City died at the scene, said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins.

The train rolled past the vehicle as it tried to stop, leaving the demolished truck a mangled mess, its frame 150 to 200 feet behind the train.

Both locomotives and all nine passenger cars rolled off their rails, with at least two cars tipping partway over, said Eugene Shuler, Plant City Fire Rescue operations chief. The train was evacuated.

"A regular old nightmare," passenger JoAnn Channell of Brandon said, still shaken two hours later as she waited for her father to pick her up at a nearby ballpark. "I don't think I'll ever be right again."

The crash led to two minor fires - one in the train and a brushfire in the surrounding grassy, wooded area.

Hill was going over a private crossing leading to the Universal Structures' access road. It has no signal arm, lights or bells.

As Hill edged out onto the tracks, the train was right there, Coggins said.

A check of Hillsborough County records showed no traffic citations for Hill in the county.

Dozens of friends and relatives gathered at Hill's shaded home in the country as word of the accident spread before sundown. Relatives described Hill as a good husband and father of two young daughters, but his father-in-law said the family was too grief-stricken to talk publicly about Hill just yet.

The quiet gathering of family and friends in mourning was far from the chaos several miles south, where the train wreck sent its hundred-plus passengers searching for family, luggage and answers.

Barbara May, 60, of Detroit was traveling home from Fort Lauderdale with family members . Suddenly the train started jerking - "shake and bake," May said. The family could see a solid wall of smoke and brown dust rushing through the train toward them. She told her children, "Don't panic."

Her daughter Tyshona Jackson, 16, was talking on the phone with a friend as the train started to shake, and passengers in the car fell as it started to tip over. "Are you okay?" her friend asked over the phone. "I'm going to call you back," Tyshona said.

May, relieved to be alive, said she never had time to be frightened. "I didn't think about being scared," she said.

Their passenger car, the fourth one on the train, ended up tilted at a 60 to 70 degree angle . Passengers tumbled out of the car, but they all seemed to be okay, she said.

Passengers from the train were crowded into the nearby Family Bowl bowling alley while rescue officials assessed the situation. The bowling alley provided drinks, food and shelter from the blazing sun.

Emergency responders from Plant City Fire Rescue shuttled passengers with local connections to Mike Sansone Community Park. They waited under threatening skies where gnats swarmed and luggage seemed out of place.