AP Exclusive: '93 Amtrak crash survivor relives each new one
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — In the dark of night, three travelers advanced inexorably toward tragedy.
Accompanied by her parents on her first train trip, 11-year-old Andrea Chancey couldn't sleep despite the steady rocking of the Amtrak coach. Aboard the same train after missing a flight, Ken Ivory lounged nearby. Miles away, Willie C. Odom steered a towboat as it pushed barges up a river that was getting foggier by the mile.
A bump. A whoosh. A ball of fire.
Suddenly, those three and more than 200 other people were caught up in what remains the deadliest accident in Amtrak history, the derailment of the Los Angeles-to-Miami Sunset Limited in a south Alabama bayou in 1993. Forty-seven people died and more than 100 others were hurt.