A local transit employee was among those killed in the Amtrak derailment outside Tacoma, Washington, on Monday, his agency says.
Zack Willhoite was an IT customer service support specialist with Pierce Transit, the public transportation agency in Pierce County, which encompasses Tacoma. He had been employed there since 2008, Pierce Transit said in a statement.
“He has always been deeply appreciated and admired by his colleagues, and played an important role at our agency. He will be sincerely missed. Our thoughts are with Zack’s family, as well as the families of the other victims, during this very difficult time,” the statement said.
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Willhoite was one of three people killed. Dozens of others — including some rail enthusiasts who simply wanted to be among the first to ride the new route — were injured.
Charlie Heebner, 79, and his wife, Beverly, 78, of Olympia, Washington, were eager to try out the new rail line, which promised faster service between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.
Related: NTSB searches for cause of deadly Amtrak accident
“We just wanted to go, an opportunity to be the first to go on this newly established section of track that hasn’t had passenger trains on it in years,” Heebner told NBC affiliate KING 5 in Seattle from the hospital where both he and his wife were taken with non-life-threatening injuries.
The couple was enjoying the ride when suddenly, the train derailed.
“A lot of tossing and squealing and rattling,” Heebner said. “It kind of got dark, and I ended up on the floor.”
Federal investigators say the train was traveling at 80 mph on a 30-mph stretch of track when it went careening off a bridge, sending train cars onto the highway underneath.
Related: Amtrak’s liabilities are capped due to unpopular 1997 lawAccording to National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr, Train 501 was carrying 80 passengers, three crew and two service personnel. It’s unclear whether crew members are among the dead.
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Del DeSart, 38, of Astoria, Ore., was on the train back home after going to a Seattle Seahawks game. A season ticketholder, DeSart usually drives up to the games, but decided to save money on gas and take the train this time to “just relax,” his wife, Meagan DeSart, told NBC News
Meagan heard about the train crash on Monday morning but couldn’t get a hold of her husband for more than half an hour and didn’t know whether he had survived.
“It was horrifying,” she said. “It felt like an eternity.”
Once she reached him, she left their three kids, ages 3, 11, and 16, with family, and met him at the hospital in Tacoma where he was taken.
“We’re still not quite sure the gravity of everything that’s going on medically,” Meagan said. “He has broken bones, and he’s not paralyzed, and we’re thankful for that.”
She declined to give more information about his condition in light of potential legal action she was considering.
“He’s hanging in there,” she said.
Another passenger, Rudy Wetzel, 81, injured his back in the derailment. He told KING he was asleep when it happened.
“I opened up my eyes and I saw the car was falling,” he said from his hospital bed. “Next thing you know, part of my body was underneath the car.”
As for why he survived, Wetzel said: “I’m a very lucky person.”