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Amtrak train derails in Vermont, seven people hospitalized

After the derailment of Train 55, reported to local authorities at 10:30 a.m., one crew member was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

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An Amtrak passenger train hit debris from a rockslide and derailed in central Vermont on Monday, sending at least seven people to the hospital, officials said.

The train, carrying 98 passengers and four crew members and travelling from St. Albans, Vermont, to Washington, went off the tracks near Roxbury, about 20 miles (32 km) south of the state capital, Montpelier, Amtrak said in a statement.

After the derailment of Train 55, reported to local authorities at 10:30 a.m., one crew member was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, the Federal Railroad Administration said in a statement. The rest of the injured, including at least four passengers, were taken to another hospital with less severe injures.

The remaining passengers were put on buses and taken to nearby Norwich University, a military college that acts as a Red Cross evacuation site. The preliminary cause of the accident was a rockslide that left debris in the train's path, the FRA said.

One Twitter user, who identified himself as Brian Bell, posted photographs of a train pressed up against a pile of large rocks. "Hit a rock slide," an accompanying message said. Images from others showed train cars that had slid down an embankment.

Montpelier Fire Department Lieutenant Dana Huoppi told Fox News the train had five cars, two of which went down an embankment. The National Transportation Safety Board said it sent a team of four rail investigators to the scene.

US Senator Richard Blumenthal called for a swift investigation into the derailment, which occurred on a stretch of railroad owned and maintained by the New England Central Railroad. "Today's derailment, which left a horrifying zigzag of steel sliding off the tracks, raises anew important, vital questions about rail safety and maintenance," the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. "It is critical that we learn whether this accident was avoidable, so that we can ensure that similar tragedies do not happen in the future."

The incident occurred five months after the derailment of an Amtrak train near Philadelphia killed eight people and injured more than 200 on May 12. In February, six people were killed in a fiery collision between a Metro-North Railroad passenger train and a sport utility vehicle in Valhalla, a New York City suburb. 

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