Investigators eye switch in deadly S.C. train collision

(NBC News) – Investigators are trying to determine what caused a deadly South Carolina Amtrak crash that killed two crew members and injured more than 100 people early Sunday morning.

Six passengers remain hospitalized, two of them in critical condition.

The accident happened early Sunday morning when the passenger train was diverted from the main line and onto a side track where it collided with a parked freight train.

Investigators on scene are focusing on why a manual switch was locked in the wrong position sending the train onto the wrong track and into a parked freight train.

The train was en route from New York to Miami with a total of 147 people on board when it slammed into an empty CSX freight train that was parked on a side track.

Killed in the crash were the train’s conductor Michael Cella and engineer Michael Kempf, whose brother says he was concerned about rail safety.

“He told me one of these times somethings going to happen and I’m not going to walk away from it,” said Michael Kempf’s brother, Rich Kempf.

Read more: http://nbcnews.to/2BWM3dn

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