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Dozens hurt in US train crash
01/12/2007 10:24 - (SA)
Chicago - A passenger train plowed into the back of a freight train and crushed one end of a boxcar under its wheels, injuring dozens of people, some seriously. Most of the 187 passengers walked away unhurt.
Passengers were hurled into the seats in front of them in the accident on Friday on the city's South Side, and four people had to be pulled from the front of the train, where the engine was located, authorities said.
The collision sent 71 people to a dozen hospitals, most of them in stable or good condition, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
Three people were expected to be hospitalised overnight, said National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairperson Robert Sumwalt.
The cause of the wreck was not immediately known.
The damage to the passenger train was mostly to its engine, where some workers of the Amtrak national passenger rail service were on board, authorities said.
It was unclear how many of the five Amtrak workers who were on the train were hurt. The train's three double-decker passenger cars remained upright.
Rescue workers
No one was in the section of the Norfolk Southern freight train that was struck, and neither of the two workers aboard was hurt.
Amtrak passengers, many of them carrying winter coats and luggage, streamed off the train with the help of rescue workers. Some held the hands of children; others were taken away on stretchers and backboards.
The Amtrak train was en route from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Chicago. The freight train was travelling from Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Chicago.
Norfolk Southern spokesperson Rudy Husband said he had no details about what caused the accident or what the freight train was carrying.
Amtrak spokesperson Derrick James said it was unclear which train was in the wrong place.
He said Amtrak shares the track with Norfolk Southern, which owns it. He also said he did not know if the freight train was moving or stationary when it was struck.
Event recorder
Amtrak was awaiting information from an event recorder, a device similar to the black boxes on airliners, James said.
Of particular interest was what the signals were before the Amtrak train got to the spot where the collision occurred, he said.
A team of nine NTSB investigators had arrived in Chicago to conduct interviews with crew members, passengers, dispatchers and supervisors in an investigation that could take months, Sumwalt said at a news conference.
A police surveillance camera mounted on a nearby post recorded the accident and the footage will be turned over to investigators, Interim Police Superintendent Dana Starks said.
- AP
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