The video above captures what happened after a semi truck carrying a load of vehicles got itself high-centered on a railroad crossing Friday near Thackerville, Okla. An Amtrak train hits the incapacitated truck at speed in one of the most spectacular crashes we can recall, sending the truckload of vehicles flying and crumpling the car trailer. Worse, five people aboard the Amtrak were injured and were transported to a hospital, according to Love County firefighters, though the injuries were non-critical.
Fire officials said the driver of the truck was not injured, nor were his dogs. In the video, you can see someone jumping up and down in a vain attempt to warn the train. That may well have been the trucker.
Photos in the gallery below show the aftermath of the crash, with some vehicles nearly unrecognizable. The impact lifted the locomotive off the tracks and derailed it, as you can see in one of the photos.
The train was northbound. Thackerville is in southern Oklahoma north of Dallas/Fort Worth. Some of the Amtrak passengers were ferried in school buses to lodging, while some stayed aboard. There was a locomotive at the rear of the train, so the damaged locomotive was uncoupled and a locomotive at the south end of the train was used to take passengers back to Fort Worth.