The 1993 Amtrak derailment in Alabama killed 47 people, making it the deadliest crash in the company’s history
NEED TO KNOW
- The 1993 Amtrak derailment in Alabama killed 47 people, making it the deadliest crash in the company’s history
- Passenger Michael Dopheide helped over 30 people escape, earning praise as a hero from fellow survivors
- The crash was caused by a barge striking the bridge minutes before the train attempted to cross it
Michael Dopheide had made what he thought was an offhand joke to a friend that foggy September morning, while on board a train headed to Miami.
“When this friend of mine got off at Gulfport, Miss., I made some dumb joke like, ‘Well, at least we got here without going off the track,’ ” Dopheide, then 26, would later tell PEOPLE.
Two hours later, at 3 a.m. local time on Sept. 22, 1993, Dopheide was jolted awake by the train doing just that — hurtling off a fog-shrouded bridge just north of Mobile, Ala., and plummeting into the murky depths of Big Bayou Canot.
“People were screaming and moaning and groaning,’” Dopheide recounted. “One woman shouted, ‘Oh God, we’re all gonna die!’ ”…