TRAIN DERAILS; AT LEAST 150 HURT; RAIN WEAKENS ARIZONA SPAN.

Byline: Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writer

An Amtrak train en route from Los Angeles to Chicago crashed early Saturday morning as it crossed a bridge that buckled in a storm near Kingman, Ariz., leaving more than 150 people injured.

The Southwest Chief, carrying 330 passengers, derailed at 4:55 a.m. PDT, just hours after severe thunderstorms pounded the area, 13 miles northeast of Kingman, authorities said. One passenger was in critical condition, officials said Saturday evening.

Among those who escaped injury were San Fernando Valley resident Yvonne Brown and her 14-year-old son, Christopher, who were dozing when they were jolted awake by the crash.

``All of a sudden it was like a deja vu of the Northridge Earthquake,'' said Brown, of Winnetka. ``Everything started shaking, seats were pulling up and jolting back and forth, things were flying through the air.''

Brown and her son, who were on their way to the Grand Canyon for a short vacation.

``I was just trying to keep from flying out of my seat, and in my mind I was thinking, `If I can just keep my son from flying out of the seat, we would be OK,' '' said Brown, a paralegal.

After being shepherded off the train, Brown was able to see the damage firsthand.

``The tracks looked like they had disintegrated beneath us,'' she said. ``They had completely buckled up and the wood part, the ties, were splintered.''

Brown and about 200 of her fellow passengers were taken to the Kingman Junior High School gym, where the Red Cross set up a temporary shelter with the help of volunteers from churches and Boy Scouts troops.

The injured were treated in four hospitals in Arizona and Nevada, said local police and Amtrak officials.

About 100 people were treated at Kingman Regional Medical Center, comprising 70 ``walking wounded'' released for bruises, sprains and other minor injuries and 30 treated for more serious injuries, such as back or head injuries, said chief executive Brian Turney.

The Southwest Chief, traveling at about 90 mph, derailed as the third of its four engines crossed the 5- to 7-foot-high bridge, leaving seven passenger cars behind it zigzagged but upright after crossing the span.

Amtrak spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said investigators had not yet determined why the accident occurred.

``We do not know what caused the crash - it's too early to tell,'' he said. ``It derailed, but most if not all the cars are upright.''

But Lt. Ray Sipe of the Kingman Police Department said there was extensive flooding.

``The heavy flood caused the track to buckle,'' he said.

A flash flood in a normally dry wash scoured away the ground around supports for the trestle, causing it to collapse when the train went over, said Jim Sabourin, a spokesman for Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, the railroad that owns the track.

``We know for sure it was weather-related flooding,'' he said.

One of the train's double-decker passenger cars was left straddling the 30-foot-wide wash, and some passengers said the derailment felt like an amusement park ride.

``It felt like you were in car going down the side of a mountain. Everybody was screaming,'' said Doug Fischer, a passenger from Albuquerque, N.M.

``Some people were thrown over seats ahead of them. The seats broke loose and shifted. There were personal belongings all over the aisles,'' Fischer said.

``It felt like it was a minute, but I'm sure it was just seconds that the shifting and falling and tumbling went on,'' said Jonathan Bose, 43, of Essex, England. ``It seemed like an eternity waiting for it to stop.''

Passenger Jack Miller said someone had to use a sledgehammer to get the doors open so passengers could get off the train. Other passengers kicked out an emergency window only to find themselves 12 feet up in the air.

At the Red Cross shelter, volunteer Betsy Parker said most people were in good spirits.

``They are resting and they are tired,'' she said about six hours after the crash.

Amtrak, meanwhile, began making arrangements for alternate travel for its stranded passengers, Taubenkibel said.

At the crash scene, officials from the Federal Railroad Administration began inspecting the wreckage. They were to be joined by National Transportation Safety Board officials who will conduct an investigation into the accident.

The Browns were two of 183 passengers who boarded the train at Union Station that departed from Los Angeles at 8:35 p.m. Friday.

At the temporary shelter, Brown already was arranging to take a bus to Flagstaff, the train's next destination before the crash.

``Christopher does not want to get back on the train,'' said Brown, whose son is a student at a Missouri military academy. ``Right now we are trying to get through today. He is very shaken.''

As for the ride back to Los Angeles, Brown said she is considering flying home Monday in time to take a one-day break before returning to work Wednesday as she had originally planned.

``I was going to take one day to recuperate, and now I really have something to recuperate from,'' she said.

In 1995, an Amtrak train hit a section of vandalized track and toppled 30 feet from a trestle in the desert 55 miles southwest of Phoenix, killing a sleeping-car attendant and injuring 78 other people.

The most recent Amtrak derailment was Jan. 13, when a train en route to Seattle from Chicago derailed in Wyoming, injuring eight passengers.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, 2 maps

PHOTO (color) An Amtrak train sits twisted but upright along the track after derailing early Saturday near Kingman, Ariz.

Associated Press

Map: (1) Arizona

(2) Amtrak derailment