Dozens taken to hospitals after two Chicago trains collide

CHICAGO, IL – Two Chicago Transit Authority trains collided at a station in a western suburb of Chicago during Monday morning’s rush hour, leaving dozens of people injured.

CHICAGO, IL – Two Chicago Transit Authority trains collided at a station in a western suburb of Chicago during Monday morning’s rush hour, leaving dozens of people injured.

The collision happened at about 7:45 a.m. local time at the ground-level Harlem Station in Forest Park west of Chicago, CTA spokeswoman Catherine Hosinski said.

Authorities said 33 people were taken to hospitals, but their injuries are believed to be minor, a CTA spokeswoman said.

According to Reuters, the National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending investigators to Chicago to investigate the collision. The CTA also is investigating to see whether there was an operator or anyone else on the colliding train, which had no customers.

Forest Park Mayor Anthony Calderone gave a slightly higher number of those injured saying forty-eight people had been transferred to 10 area hospitals, adding that none of their injuries was life threatening.

“Most of the people were complaining of either neck pain or back pain,” Calderone told the CLTV news station.

Reuters reports that service had resumed across the affected line by midday, but trains are not stopping at the station where the collision occurred, according to the CTA.

Robert Kelly, president of the union which represents train operators, told reporters the moving train was apparently empty and safety mechanisms should have stopped it automatically before it entered the station.

“Right now it is starting to look like a mechanical malfunction,” Kelly said.

Calderone said Forest Park police were treating the station as a crime scene as a precaution to preserve evidence, though they were not saying any crime had occurred.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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