NORTH BERWICK  — Rail officials are clarifying that a burning Amtrak locomotive was separated from passenger cars by the impact of a collision, not by the actions of the train’s crew.

Amtrak said the jolt separated the locomotive from the five passenger cars, contrary to initial reports that the engineer hopped out and manually separated the burning engine from the passenger cars.

Amtrak said it wanted to correct the record, but not to diminish the actions of the four crew members.

The truck driver was killed in Monday’s fiery collision in North Berwick. Four passengers, along with the Amtrak engineer and an assistant conductor, were injured.