The Amtrak conductor killed in a head-on crash with a parked freight train was a former restaurant manager who switched careers “to make a better life for his family,” his grieving brother said Sunday.
Michael Cella, 36, worked at an eatery in Jacksonville, Florida., until a co-worker steered him to a job with Amtrak around 2006, older brother John Paul Cella said.
Michael, of Orange Park, Florida, loved his job on the rails and “was a great friend, son, father, husband and brother,” John Paul said.
Grief-stricken widow Christine Praeger Cella — with whom Michael was raising a daughter, 6, and a son, 2 — said, “He was amazing and he was a loving father.”
Mom Donna Cella, 61, said Michael “loved sports” and “played baseball and basketball.”
Donna also said she recently retired to spend more time with her family.
“But that will never happen, now that Michael won’t be here,” she said by phone as she began sobbing.
“I’m still trying to process this. The only information we were given is that he was on the train and he is deceased.”
Cella and Amtrak engineer Michael Kempf, 54, of Savannah, Georgia, both died when Amtrak’s “Silver Star” smashed into a CSX freight train around 2:45 a.m. about 10 miles south of Columbia, South Carolina.
The train was en route from New York City to Miami with about 150 people and was traveling an estimated 59 mph at the time of impact, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said.
McMaster said that the freight train “was on the track it was supposed to be on,” and that the cause of the crash was under investigation.