ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

JAMES MARTINEZ

INTERCESSION CITY, Fla. (AP)—Railroad officials may not have been warned about a truck blocking railroad tracks before an Amtrak derailment injured 70 people, one official said Wednesday.

One day after Tuesday’s derailment near Kissimmee, another Amtrak train struck a car in South Carolina, killing two people.

Such car-train accidents happen almost daily in this country, said Clifford Black, Amtrak’s director of public affairs. ‘‘Sadly it takes a high-profile accident like the Kissimmee accident to focus on an ongoing problem with grade crossing safety,’‘ Black said.

In 1992, 579 people in automobiles were killed and 1,975 seriously injured in 4,910 highway-rail grade crossing collisions, he said.

A utility official backed off his claim that a railroad dispatcher was warned before Tuesday’s derailment that a truck was stuck on the tracks in front of an approaching Amtrak train.

‘‘I don’t know whether a call was made or not,’‘ said Chris Gent, a spokesman for the Kissimmee Utility Authority. ‘‘I have no way of knowing who called or if anyone called.’‘

Gent had said soon after Tuesday’s crash that a dispatcher was warned well before a locomotive barreled around a bend and slammed into the stalled truck, which was carrying a new 82-ton generator for the utility. With all of its accessories, the generator totaled 150 tons.

Both Amtrak and CSX Transportation, which owns the track and controls its traffic, said they received no such call.

A dozen National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the dusty crash site 20 miles southwest of Orlando.

‘‘I’ve asked our investigators … to document the human activities here at the crossing for the 30 minutes leading up to the accident,’‘ said NTSB member John Hammerschmidt. ‘‘That is, identify the individuals who were here, what they were doing, who said what to whom and when.’‘

Gent, who witnessed the accident, originally said someone with the trucking company called the dispatcher 15 minutes before the collision. He said the dispatcher apparently was confused about the crossing location and gave erroneous information about when the next train would pass.

Gent acknowledged Wednesday that his account was based on hearsay. ‘‘It was just talk going around,’‘ he said. ‘‘All I know is I didn’t make the call, and no one from the utility made the call.’‘

Rountree Transport Co., which was hauling the $12.6 million generator for the utility, issued a statement Wednesday saying the company was working with the NTSB and other investigators. ‘‘Therefore, we are unable to answer any questions involving this very regrettable incident,’‘ the Fort Lauderdale company said.

The collision’s force pushed the truck and generator about 100 yards and derailed four of the eight cars of Amtrak’s Silver Meteor, traveling from Tampa to New York with 111 people on board.

All but eight of the injured had been released by Wednesday.

At Greer, S.C., two people were killed Wednesday when their car was hit by an Amtrak train at a rural crossing, authorities said.

No injuries were reported among some 250 people aboard the Crescent, en route from New York to New Orleans. The train was delayed about 90 minutes.

The car had turned off a highway which runs parallel to the tracks onto a driveway leading to a trucking plant when it was hit by the train, said state Public Safety Department spokesman Joe Pellicci.

The crossing had warning signs but no lights or gates, he said.