COLUMBIA, S.C. �� An Amtrak train that collided Sunday morning with a freight train and killed two people appeared to be on the wrong track, possibly because a switch was in the wrong position, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and other state officials said Sunday.
The two people who died in the crash were identified as Amtrak workers Michael Kempf, 54, of Savannah, Ga., and Michael Cella, 36, of Orange Park, Fla. Kempf was the engineer; Cella was the conductor.
More than 100 other people were treated at hospitals for various injuries.
Investigators were trying to determine if the switch was misaligned, causing the passenger train to run off the main line southwest of Columbia and collide with the parked freight train, according to the state Office of Regulatory Staff.
The CSX freight train was empty, stationary and on a loading track when the collision occurred, McMaster said. The Amtrak train was traveling about 50 mph, within the posted 59 mph speed limit, according to the regulatory agency.
"It appears to me that the CSX train was on the track it was supposed to be on," McMaster said. "It appears Amtrak was on the wrong track."
Tom Allen, a transportation safety director with the state regulatory agency, said "it was probably a switching issue'' that caused the Amtrak train to run onto the side track.
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, Allen said.
"Part of the preliminary indications are that it would have to be a switching issue,'' Allen said. "It was no derailment caused by a flaw in the track. The Amtrak was on the wrong track.''
CSX, which owns the track, would be responsible for maintaining the switch on the track, Allen said.
"It's a horrible thing to see to understand the force that is involved," McMaster said after seeing the crash scene. "The first engine of the freight train was torn up and the single engine of the Amtrak train was barely recognizable. It was quite a crash."
