 Dennis Oglesby and Martin Griffith , two United States Army soldiers who were in the lead train and were uninjured in the collision , helped passengers , most of whom appeared to have minor injuries , evacuate from their train . Oglesby and Griffith then noticed that six to eight people from the other train had been ejected by the force of the collision and were more seriously injured . One person from the overtaking train had been thrown onto the roof of the stationary train and had suffered a severe head wound . The soldiers gave first aid to the more seriously injured victims until help arrived , and informed responding emergency personnel that the rails were still powered and needed to be shut down . 
