MORNING MIX

A Boy Scout escaped Amtrak wreckage and comforted a dying truck driver

Eli Skrypczak, 15, felt ‘a giant jolt’ before his train car derailed and overturned, throwing him out of his seat

By Jonathan Edwards
June 29, 2022 at 7:11 a.m. EDT

Eli Skrypczak played on his phone Monday afternoon while aboard an Amtrak train hurtling through the heartland of Missouri. As he slipped in and out of sleep, the 15-year-old Boy Scout and more than 270 other passengers were unaware of the dump truck ahead that was about to change their lives.

{snip}



Eli Skrypczak and his father, Dan, after Eli returned home to Wisconsin. Eli was aboard an Amtrak train that derailed near Mendon, Mo., on June 27. At least four people were killed in the crash. (Courtesy of Dan Skrypczak)

At 12:43 p.m., “a giant jolt” awakened Eli, who was in his seat. There was twisting metal and loud creaking. He smelled diesel. Then, his train car overturned onto its side, causing Eli to fall onto fellow Scouts who had been sitting across the aisle on the side of the train that had become the new floor.

{snip}

The collision caused some of the Scouts from Wisconsin to lose their phones, AirPods and even their shoes, Skrypczak said. Eli and the others collected their wits, made sure they were all accounted for and started helping people. ... The adrenaline kicked in, and something took over and I knew what to do,” Eli told WITI. “It was unreal. It still doesn’t seem real to me.” ... First, the Scouts secured passengers who seemed like they might have spinal cord injuries, his father told The Post. Then, they started popping out the train car’s emergency windows. When some became stuck, the Scouts used their shirts for protection and broke the glass. They evacuated everyone they could.

They were “getting people out of windows and carrying them down,” Eli told the Milwaukee-based TV station. “I had to carry a couple kids in my arms, two at a time.” ... After that, Eli ran to the front of the train to see if anyone was injured, his father told The Post. He learned the train had hit a vehicle when he saw wheels or an axle near the tracks. Then, in a ditch, he spotted a man who turned out to be the driver of the dump truck the train had just hit, whom authorities identified as Billy Barton II, 54, of Brookfield, Mo.

{snip}

Gift Article
https://wapo.st/3yurghB

By Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. Before joining The Post, he covered public safety for The Virginian-Pilot and Lincoln Journal Star. Twitter https://twitter.com/jonathanreports