PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Del DeSart decided to take the train to his home in Astoria from Seattle after watching the Seahawks get demolished on Sunday. He’s now in a Seattle-area hospital with a broken back he suffered when Amtrak Train 501 derailed at 7:33 a.m. Monday.
His wife, Meagan DeSart, told KOIN 6 News via Skype that he was pinned under train car parts — and the people in the seat behind him didn’t make it.
Their family moved to Astoria a couple years ago from the Seattle area, but Del retained his season tickets to the Seahawks. He planned to get off in Longview — where he’d parked his car — and then drive home.
The crash
Del was in the 3rd car back from the locomotive — one of those that headed into the woods.
“He remembers grabbing onto the seat in front of him really tightly because he said it got so violent he banged his head on the side of the window, and then he banged his head on something else,” Meagan said. “He heard someone yell the term, ‘It’s falling off the tracks.'”
When the train derailed, “he thinks it was part of a luggage rack, maybe, that came down and was on him and he couldn’t get out,” she told KOIN 6 News. “There was bodies lying around him. People screaming. Panic.”
He was knocked unconscious. Meagan said Del was tossed around the train cabin and when he woke he was pinned under train car parts. He had to be pried out by first responders but doesn’t remember much about that.
“He said he woke up to hell, basically.”
“There was a dead body next to him because when he was getting rescued and pried out, one of the rescuers said, ‘You can step on that body to get out.’ And my husband was, like, ‘I can’t do that.'”
He was rushed by ambulance to an area hospital, covered with dirt and looked like he’d been rolling in the mud. When his boots were taken off in the hospital, they found shards of glass inside his socks, she said.Meagan’s reaction
After Meagan heard about the derailment, she tried frantically to find out if Del was OK, and which hospital he was in. It took about 45 minutes to find out — minutes she said felt like an eternity.
“There was, like, a miracle to find out he was alive,” she said. “I didn’t even pack anything. I grabbed my kids and made the 3-hour trip up here.”
“I was crying the entire time, then I kind of calmed down to make the drive, because I did have to drive my kids with me,” Meagan said. “I was definitely crying, emotional, all of that. It’s been kind of a rollercoaster of emotions.”
She said she’s grateful Del is alive but sad for those who didn’t make it.
“Kind of just trying to make sense of it all.”What’s next
Del DeSart is undergoing more tests in the hospital to determine the extent of his injuries and is not out of the woods medically yet, she said. But “he feels blessed that he walked away from it. He is not going to ride a train for a while.”