WAPAKONETA — Four people were killed and 150 were injured Monday when an Amtrak passenger train struck a dump truck on a railroad crossing in Missouri. More than a dozen people from the Miami Valley were among the more than 200 passengers on the train at the time of the crash.
News Center 7 confirmed Wednesday that 16 people from the Wapakoneta-area were passengers on that Amtrak train. Some of them are members of the Steinke family. One family member who was not on the train told News Center 7′s John Bedell that they were all on their way home from a trip when the deadly crash happened.
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The family member said three members of the family, including his in-laws, had to be hospitalized after the impact, but that all three of them are expected to be OK. He even said some family members were expected to be back home at some point Wednesday.
The group was on their way home from a trip out west that covered parts of Utah and Arizona, according to the family member. The trip was supposed to happen in 2020, but had been postponed.
News Center 7 learned that some members of the family have ties to St. Patrick Catholic Church in Auglaize County. We spoke to Fr. Rob Muhlenkamp, Parochial Vicar of St. Patrick and the family of four other parishes in the Grand Lake St. Marys-area, Wednesday and he extended well wishes and prayers to the family.
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“The prayers of the St. Patrick community are with the Steinke family. We look forward to having them home safe in the near future,” Fr. Muhlenkamp said in a statement.
Amtrak said the train was on the way from Los Angeles to Chicago when the crash happened.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the cause of the crash. The NTSB said the crossing where the train hit a dump truck did not have flashing lights or railroad crossing arms.