Amtrak boots upset passenger
Staff writer
An unruly Amtrak passenger was ejected from a train around 3 a.m. Sunday in Florence.
Sheriff’s deputies were summoned and arrived before the train stopped.
“It was an older guy, and he was having a mental health crisis, and the Amtrak conductors didn’t want him on the train,” Undersheriff Larry Starkey said. “His wife and sister wanted him checked out, so we took him to St. Luke to be checked out and took him to a hotel in Newton.”
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the passenger “was not compliant with direction by the train crew and was causing a disturbance.”
Starkey said the passenger was threatening to pull an emergency stop control.
Several other relatives were aboard the train and didn’t do anything to help him, Starkey said.
“I don’t know what they would have done if we’d been busy and couldn’t get there,” he said.
Starkey said his understanding was that the family was taking a vacation and, except for the man, his wife, and his sister, other family members apparently continued on their trip.
“I think they started out in Maryland,” he said.