Local family banged up but ok following train derailment 

By Adam Strunk 

Two Newton residents escaped with only minor injuries, despite being aboard an Amtrak train that hit a dump truck in Missouri and derailed. 

The derailment, near Mendon Missouri, killed two passengers, the truck driver and injured 50 others. 

Tami Lakey and daughter Anna of Newton were on the train headed for Naperville Illinois. Both escaped the accident with minor injuries. 

“Hitting the truck jolted us both awake,” Lakey said. “There was hardly time to realize we had hit something before we found ourselves flying from our seats.”

Lakey said that she didn’t think either she or her daughter lost consciousness during the event. 

“Once the train car stopped moving I heard Anna crying and I think that’s when I realized we had derailed,” she said. 

Lakey described the aftermath of the derailment. 

“I think there is a moment of panic when you can’t find clarity to do the next thing that has to happen,” she stated. “That definitely happened to me. But looking around the train car at people also hurt and panicked helped me focus on getting the emergency window out so everyone in our car could get out. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you have no other choice.”

She said she was thankful that she and her daughter both were sitting at the time and she knew her daughter was ok after the train derailed. She said Amtrak workers, passengers and then those living in the area all pitched in to lend aid in following the derailment.

“The local people remind me a lot of Newtonians,” she said. “They all jumped in to help. And I promise you that almost that entire town showed up to help at the accident site or the high school where they transported us to. “

She said that the Red Cross provided Red Cross air-conditioned tents and cots for those that needed housing.

“A sweet community member that was talking with us invited Anna and I to stay at her home tonight,” she said. “She said they didn’t live far and she’s love to have us.”

She said a friend in Kansas City drove out and picked them up. Her husband Chris will travel to pick them up and return them to Newton Monday evening and she planned on seeing a doctor on her return. The Lakey family along with living in Newton also runs Norm’s Coffee Bar, and provides afterschool programming for students and meals for community members. 

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