Two victims among the four who died in an Amtrak wreck in Missouri have been identified as sisters who got up to use the toilet on board the train.
Rachelle Cook, 58, and Kim Holsapple, 56, of Desoto, Kansas, were on their first vacation in years. They were on their way to Chicago with their mother and Holsapple’s daughter when the train derailed Monday and 150 passengers were injured.
“Kim and her sister Rachelle and Tiffany went down to the restrooms, where while waiting their turn, derailing the train, slipping hundreds of feet on its side and trapping many people and killing the two moms while sparing Tiffany,” Holsapple’s partner Jim Hart wrote on Facebook referring to the daughter.
Hart said the four travelers packed their clothes, coolers and leftovers for him and other family members left behind.
“Their mother, Pauline, who was still upstairs in her seat, was also injured which required hospitalization,” Hart said in the report seen by the Daily Mail. “Many more injuries occurred, with an additional passenger dying a day later.”
Cook and Holsapple were pronounced dead at the scene along with truck driver Billy Barton II, 54, of Brookfield, Missouri. A fourth passenger, Binh Pham, 82, of Kansas City, Missouri, died at a hospital Tuesday.
Hart described the mothers as ‘sweet ladies’ in a GoFundMe page to cover expenses surrounding their deaths.
‘They were excited to be on their first trip together in many years. It was their four-day break, “Hart wrote.
“They leave behind many loved ones, including children and grandchildren.”
There were about 275 passengers and a dozen crew members on board when eight cars turned on their side when the train traveling at 90 miles per hour hit a railroad crossing in Mendon. The train began its journey in Los Angeles.
Hospitalized passengers “sustained injuries ranging from minor to serious in nature,” according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
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