JACKSONVILLE, Fla -- Charter buses transporting passengers from Sunday morning's deadly Amtrak crash near Cacye, South Carolina arrived in Jacksonville at 4:15 p.m.
The Silver 91 train collided with a stationary train at 2:35 a.m. killing 2 and injuring over 100.
At the Amtrak station on Clifford Lane in Jacksonville, passenger George Kephart told First Coast News the crash happened while most people were asleep.
"We had an impact that woke everyone up screaming and I knew that we were in big trouble," said Kephart. "I knew we were either gonna start flipping or blow. I was prepared for it, I was waiting for it."
Kephart said the impact ripped his train car chair from the floor and their train car left the tracks.
"I had to crawl on my hands and knees to the stairs...an officer carried me down past the wreckage to the street and it was freezing out there, I just basically was on the road for an hour shaking and freezing."
Another passenger Wendy Comerico said she was trapped in the train after the crash and planned to go to a hospital in Jacksonville.
"I've never seen anything in my entire life like this. Bodies were everywhere, people on top of one another," Comerico said. "There were two seats on top of my legs, I couldn't move. It was very dark, you couldn't see anything. We didn't even know where we were in the woods."
Crash Response
Comerico praised organizations like the Red Cross and first responders for providing aid on the scene but was critical of Amtrak's care of the victims.
"They didn't tell us anything. All they told us was that the buses were coming to take us to our destination, that's all they told us," said Comerico.
Kephart said he was first taken to a middle school being used as a shelter and then taken to the hospital.
"They gave me some kind of a shot and told me I would be able to walk soon, then they told me 'all right you've gotta go.' I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what was going on," Kephart said. "I don't agree with the fact that they told me to leave, I could still barely walk. I can bear it, but I thought they would bring me to another hospital."
A man from Ohio who said he was coming to Florida to find work, said Amtrak offered no hotels for injured passengers.
"They could have done a little more for the injured, beat up, banged up, but they didn't really offer much at all," he said. "[The hospital] threw us a few pain pills and shipped us out the door. I'm still a little shocked. You don't expect to wake up and see the people next to you bleeding."