CHICAGO (AP) - An
eight-car Chicago commuter train plowed across a platform and scaled an
escalator at the underground station of one of the nation’s busiest airports
early Monday, injuring 32 people on board, officials said.
No one suffered
life-threatening injuries in the Blue Line derailment at O’Hare
International Airport, Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said during a
morning briefing.
An enormous
disaster was avoided thanks to the timing of the crash just before 3 a.m.
The bustling station is usually packed with travelers using the major
airport, but Chicago Transit Authority official said the crash happened at a
traditionally quiet time.
Denise Adams, a
passenger on the train, told the Chicago Sun-Times she heard a loud noise
during the impact.
“I heard a ‘Boom!’
and when I got off the train, the train was all the way up the escalator,”
she said. “It was a lot of panic.”
CTA investigators
along with the city fire department and police were reviewing security
footage and interviewing the driver and other CTA workers to pin down the
cause of the accident. National Transportation Safety Board was leading the
investigation.
“We will be looking
at equipment. We will be looking at signals. We’ll be looking at the human
factor and any extenuating circumstances,” CTA spokesman Brian Steele said.
“But really at this point, it’s far too soon to speculate.”
Transit agency
officials said crews were working to remove the train and fix the escalator,
which received “significant damage.” Hours after the crash, the front of the
first car could still be seen near the top of the escalator.
Christopher Bushell,
CTA’s chief infrastructure officer, said it would likely be at least 12 to
24 hours before the station would reopen. He said workers will cut the train
apart and remove it in pieces on a flatbed.
The CTA was busing
passengers to and from O’Hare to the next station on the line.
The train appeared
to have been going too fast as it approached the end-of-line station and
didn’t stop at a bumping post - a metal shock absorber at the end of the
tracks.
“The train actually
climbed over the last stop, jumped up on the sidewalk and then went up the
stairs and escalator,” Santiago said.
“Apparently (it)
was traveling at a rate of speed that clearly was higher than a normal train
would be,” Steele said.
It wasn’t clear how
many people were on board at the time of the crash, but that it took place
during what is “typically among our lowest ridership time,” Steele said.
The injured were
taken to area hospitals and Santiago said most were able to walk away from
the wreck unaided.
Six of the injured,
all of whom were in stable condition, were brought to Swedish Covenant
Hospital in Chicago, said hospital spokesman Nick Przybyciel.
Evonne Woloshyn, a
spokeswoman at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, said seven
people were treated for minor “whiplash-type” injuries after complaining of
head and neck pain. Most were released Monday morning and the rest were
expected to be discharged later in the day.
In September, a CTA
Blue Line train slammed into another train at a suburban Chicago station,
injuring as many as four dozen commuters.