Woman recovering after deadly Amtrak crash in Montana
By BRIDGET CHAVEZ
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YAMHILL, OR (KPTV) — Dozens of passengers were injured and three others were killed on an Amtrak train in Montana that was bound for Portland and Seattle this past weekend.
Hope Gilmore was among the survivors. She and her husband Alan have been married for 52 years and live in Yamhill.
Hope was on her way back to Oregon on Saturday, September 25 when the train she was on went off the rails.
“She said she was riding in the car, playing Sudoku and next thing she knows, the train she was in had tipped over and she was laying outside and there was a table that had come down that was laying on top of her,” Alan said.
“She said they took her out with something called a taco wrap and took her out of the car but they had a hard time getting to her because the car was on its side and the door was locked shut.” Hope is now being treated for her injuries in Great Falls, Montana.
“I’ve had better days, this isn’t my, I get emotional easy and I, this is kind of hard on us,” Alan said. He was expecting her to come home Sunday morning as planned.
“When we finally heard from her it was about three hours after the accident and she was in the ambulance and she talked, my oldest daughter, the ambulance driver answered her phone and she happened to have that with her, she lost her teeth and her glasses and her hearing aids and all that sort of stuff is still somewhere out on the prairie I guess,” he said.
Hope went into surgery Tuesday and Alan said she is recovering.
“She had a fractured vertebrae and a brain bleed and she looked like somebody beat her up with a baseball bat,” he said. He and his family are trying to find those that helped rescue Hope so they can thank them.
“We would like to thank them,” he said. “Thank you for your kindness and hard work.”
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