ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

IKE FLORES

INTERCESSION CITY, Fla. (AP)—An Amtrak passenger train smashed into a stuck tractor-trailer Tuesday as frantic state troopers tried to flag it down. About 70 people were injured, but almost all had only minor cuts and bruises.

The oversized truck, carrying a generator and accessories weighing 150 tons, got stuck at a train crossing several minutes before the crash, said Chris Gent, a spokesman for the Kissimmee Utility Authority, which owns the generator.

A train dispatcher was notified and told utility officials that the train was not due at the crossing until 1 p.m., said Gent, who witnessed the accident.

CSX Transportation, which owns the track, said it didn’t receive any phone call to its emergency line before the accident.

The train struck the tractor-trailer at 12:45 p.m., Amtrak spokeswoman Sue Martin said.

‘‘The signal crossing arm came down on top of the cab. I didn’t know what was happening. Then I saw the train,’‘ Gent said. ‘‘Then it hit. … I heard the scraping and the screeching of the steel all along the track.’‘

Four of the eight cars on the Tampa-to-New York Silver Meteor derailed. The first sleeping car overturned when it jumped the tracks. Workers had to pry off some windows to rescue trapped passengers.

CSX spokeswoman Donna Rohrer said no record was found of a phone call before the accident advising of a problem at the crossing.

The first call to the CSX operation center in Jacksonville came from police at 12:46 p.m., notifying them of the accident, she said. CSX notified Amtrak.

About 70 of the 111 people on the train were injured, but many were treated at the scene, state police Lt. Chuck Williams said. A total of 58 people were taken to five hospitals, state police Lt. Floyd Baker said.

Four of the most seriously injured, including the truck driver, were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center. The truck driver and the train’s assistant engineer were in stable condition, Baker said.

A 10-year-old girl was expected to be released Wednesday and an 83-year-old man was to be released Tuesday night, Baker said.

The train consisted of an engine, mail car, baggage car, sleeping car, lounge car and four coaches. It was carrying 103 passengers and eight crew members, Amtrak spokesman Howard Robertson said.

‘‘I heard the braking, and then people started flying all over the room, including myself,’‘ said Lisa Alachoyan of Worcester, Mass., who was drinking in the lounge car when the train hit the truck. ‘‘I looked around and saw a lot of people on the floor … but I never dreamed it was anything like this.’‘

The truck was being escorted by two state police cars when it got stuck near Intercession City, 20 miles southwest of Orlando, Williams said.

‘‘The troopers … tried to stop the train and they couldn’t,’‘ he said.

The truck had a special hydraulic system to lift the bottom over the tracks.

‘‘The tractor-trailer was raised as high was it would go, but it wasn’t high enough,’‘ Williams said.

After the truck got stuck, the utility company called a local Amtrak dispatcher and asked when the Silver Meteor was due, Gent said.

‘‘There was some confusion on the time,’‘ he said. ‘‘The dispatch people said the train was due through Kissimmee at 1 p.m. Actually, that’s the departure time.’‘

Rohrer said CSX provides toll-free numbers to police and emergency authorities, but apparently no one called that line.

‘‘We don’t know who they called,’‘ Rohrer said. ‘‘We don’t know if they called CSX. They could have called Amtrak. We just don’t know.’‘

Amtrak spokesman Phil Weck said it had no record of a call.

It was the second derailment of an Amtrak train in a little more than a week. On Nov. 23, 16 people were injured, none seriously, when a Seattle-to-Chicago train derailed near Boise, Idaho.