An Amtrak passenger train traveling at more than 50 mph ran off a main track Sunday in Lexington County, smashed into a parked train and killed two people in what’s considered one of the worst railroad accidents in recent South Carolina history.
As many as 116 people were injured in the early morning crash that occurred in a wooded area near a collection of small neighborhoods and industrial sites west of Columbia. Investigators said the crash in the Pine Ridge-Cayce area apparently was caused by a misaligned track switch that sent the Amtrak veering off course and onto a side track.