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Eli Skrypczak played on his phone Monday afternoon while aboard an Amtrak train that ran through the heart of Missouri. As he got in and out of sleep, the 15-year-old Boy Scout and hundreds of other passengers were unaware of the dump truck in front of him, which would change their lives forever.
Ellie and 14 other Boy Scouts had spent 10 days exploring the back of New Mexico, mostly traveling with a backpack through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and were on their way home to Appleton, Wisconsin, said Dan Skripchak, Ellie’s father. Appleton Scoutmaster Squad 73.
Each of the scouts diverted the train journey in his own way, Skripchak told The Washington Post late Tuesday. Several had used an application on their phone to determine that the train was running at about 90 miles per hour, which impressed them. Some ate in the dining car. Others viewed the landscape from an observation car upgraded with floor-to-ceiling windows. One happened to be in the bathroom.
At 12:43, a “huge push” woke Ellie, who was in his seat. There was a twisting of metal and a loud squeak. It smelled of diesel. Then his train overturned, causing Ellie to fall on other scouts sitting on the other side of the aisle on the side of the train that became the new floor.
Dan Skripcak, 46, who was not on the train, said his son told him that “people were starting to panic.”
The Amtrak train hit a dump truck near Mendon, derailing two locomotives and almost every wagon, reports The Post. Heading from Los Angeles to Chicago on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief line, the train carries 275 passengers and 12 crew members, according to Amtrak.
At least four people were killed and more than 100 were injured, The Post reported. On Monday, the National Transport Safety Council said it had sent a 16-member investigation team.
An Amtrak train derailed in Missouri on June 27 after hitting a dump truck, resulting in multiple deaths. (Video: Rob Nightingale via Storyful)
At least three people died after derailing an Amtrak train in Missouri
The collision caused some Wisconsin scouts to lose their phones, AirPods and even their shoes, Skripcak said. Ellie and the others came to their senses, made sure everyone was counted, and began helping people.
“The adrenaline rushed in and something came in and I knew what to do,” Ellie told WITI. “It was unrealistic. It still doesn’t seem real to me. “
First, the scouts provided passengers who looked as if they might have spinal cord injuries, his father told The Post. Then the wagon’s emergency windows began to pop up. When some got stuck, the scouts took off their protective shirts and broke the glass. They evacuated everyone they could.
“They took people out of the windows and carried them down,” Ellie told a Milwaukee-based television station. “I had to carry several children in my arms, two at a time.
Ellie then ran to the front of the train to see if anyone was injured, his father told The Post. He learned that the train had struck a vehicle when it saw wheels or an axle near the rails. He then spotted a man in the ditch who turned out to be the driver of the dump truck, who had just hit the train, whom the authorities had not identified.
He was seriously injured. He was bleeding, and although he was breathing, the man was bubbling. Eli gave him some water and tried to stop the bleeding. He told the driver that help was coming. He held his hand. Soon a local farmer joined Ellie while caring for the dying man.
“They were trying to comfort him,” Skripcak said.
Ellie and the farmer continued their efforts until the ambulance arrived, something that probably took minutes, but “looked like a lifetime,” Skripcak said. After initially joining the rescue effort, the first responders told Ellie and the farmer that it was time to “call” and “take care of the living.”
“And that’s what Ellie and the boys did,” Skripcak said.
Ellie jumped into battle. After the crash, Skripcak said, he received messages from others at the scene who remembered Ellie as the kid who shot between fire trucks and the crash site to supply paramedics. Based on what others told him, Skripcak estimated that his son had made 100 trips.
“As a father and scoutmaster, I’m incredibly proud,” Skripcak said.
But Ellie was just one of the scouts who helped, he added. Some provided first aid to their own scout masters, who were seriously injured. Others transported passengers on boards from the crash site to ambulances. When paramedics stopped them from doing so for the more severely injured patients, the scouts removed parts of the car that could have prevented the rescue workers from removing the people from the wreckage.
“I teach emergency preparedness and first aid, and I don’t know if I would think of that,” Skripcak said. “It simply came to our notice then. [I’m] I am so proud of them.
“They certainly fulfilled the Scout oath.”
Eventually, the ambulance crews ordered the scouts to go to the medical staff for an assessment. They all eventually went to the hospital, although no one was seriously injured. Most deal with soreness and bruising. Some may have a whiplash and a cracked rib or two. “But nothing serious,” Skripchak said. “Some of these kids have certainly had worse on the athletic field.
All the scouts returned home to Wisconsin late Tuesday, Skripcak said.
Eli and his fellow scouts have solid support networks at home and at school. Their parents are now assured that they will receive the necessary consultations to deal with the derailment on Monday.
After the adrenaline disappeared, Ellie was shaken, his father said, adding that he thought his son was feeling the first remorse for the survivor’s guilt. He looked good until Tuesday, although Skripcak knew firsthand that his son would have to deal with what had happened for years to come.
“Ellie is upset that she can’t do more. I repeat to him that he did everything possible. The state highway patrol told him the same thing. There was nothing he could do to save him, “Skripchak told Dnes.
Like his son, Skripchak is under pressure to make a sudden rescue effort, not all of which have had a happy ending, he told The Post. So he knows it’s not something you shake off in a few days. Trying to help someone with all your might, just to make that person die in front of you – “it’s devastating.”
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