SPARKS, Nev. — A Nevada sheriff says six fatalities have been confirmed a day after a semi slammed into an Amtrak passenger train on a rural highway.
The Churchill County Sheriff’s Office said in a release late Saturday that officials were working to confirm the victims’ identities.
Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez said earlier that the truck driver and an Amtrak conductor were among the dead in the crash.
The California Zephyr train was en route from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif., with about 200 passengers Friday morning when the big rig plowed into one of its cars.
Earl Weener of the National Transportation Safety Board said that about 28 people remained unaccounted for, but added that some passengers may have gotten off the train before the accident or been able to leave the scene and not informed authorities.
Lopez said earlier in the day investigators found skid marks at the railroad crossing on U.S. 95 about 70 miles east of Reno, indicating the driver tried to stop his semi before Friday’s collision.
Two Amtrak cars were damaged by fire after the crash.
The Zephyr had stopped in Denver on Thursday. Five Girl Scouts from Troop 71048 in Lafayette and five mothers accompanying them boarded on a trip to San Francisco, the Daily Camera reported. All 10 escaped the crash without major injuries.
Sixteen NTSB investigators took over Saturday and are expected to take up to a year to pinpoint the cause of the crash.
NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson declined to comment on what they did Saturday.
Lopez said the investigation would focus on the truck driver, whose rig crashed through a crossing gate before plowing into the Amtrak car.
