A commuter train in Chicago crashed into a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) train, leaving at least 20 people injured.
Late last month, a Yellow Line train crashed into a slow-moving snowplow on the tracks near the Howard station on the North Side. 38 people were reportedly injured, including four children, who suffered “bumps and bruises.”
Some of the passengers were taken to a triage area with stretchers lined up so they could be assessed as they were led off the train. One of the passengers had severe head bleeding. On a nearby street corner, a family who had been let off the train and had a little child in a stroller talked with the police about their plans to follow an injured family member to the hospital.
Shayla Smith, who was headed to work in Wilmette, said she had just boarded a Purple Line train at Howard when she heard the crash. She claimed to have seen an elderly woman almost fall out of her seat and that other passengers on her train started screaming.
“I just heard like a horrible boom sound. It was like a weird boom sound. It felt like we’re gonna tip over, and I was wondering what’s going on.My body shivered,” Smith said, adding that the experience was “traumatizing.”
Firefighters discovered that the southbound train and the plow were on the same tracks when the train hit the snowplow around 300 yards from the station in the 7500 block of North Paulina Street. Officials have not disclosed why the plow was on the tracks.
Following the collision, all trains were stopped, the electricity was turned off, and the thirty-one passengers as well as the seven CTA employees were evacuated out of the area.
“Our thoughts are with all affected, and we are grateful for our brave first responders on the scene,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement. “We are working closely with emergency services as we continue to monitor this incident.”
National Transportation Safety Board Chairperson Jennifer Homendy said that the crash was caused by a braking system design flaw when the CTA train crashed.
“Our team was able to determine that it was in fact a design problem. The braking distance should have been longer,” Homendy said during a briefing with reporters, adding that a “brand new” system on the same tracks would have had 2,745 feet to stop to avoid a crash.
