Semi Rams Chicago Train Station Killing Two

Apr 25th, 2008
The Associated Press
By: KAREN HAWKINS





Women sit on a curb at the scene of a rush hour accident Friday April 25, 2008 in Chicago. A tractor trailer rammed into a Chicago Transit Authority train station during the afternoon rush hour on Friday, killing two people and injuring more than a dozen others, authorities said. (AP Photo/Mike Anzaldi)

A tractor trailer rammed into a Chicago Transit Authority train station during the evening rush hour on Friday, killing two people and injuring more than a dozen others, authorities said.

Those killed, both women, were apparently walking near the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line station on the city's South Side, Fire Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez said. They were dead at the scene, she said.

Twenty-one people were transported to area hospitals, said fire department spokesman Larry Langford. Eleven were in critical condition, including four children, eight adults were in stable condition and two adults were in good condition.

'This is rush hour so it's bad,' Langford said.

Witnesses said the truck didn't appear to slow down before ramming into the station's stairwell.

Elliott Reed, 30, was walking on the street when he 'heard the big bang and saw the truck go right into the station.'

Reed said the scene was 'surreal,' with eyewitnesses asking each other, 'Did you see what just happened?'

Workers were searching through wreckage Friday evening for more injured, Langford said.

The truck's driver was extricated from the cab and taken to a hospital, Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco said at a news conference.

The truck hit pedestrians, then 'climbed the stairs' of the station's north stairwell around 5:20 p.m., Langford said.

'Right now this is just a tragic traffic accident,' said Chicago Police Department Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson.

Hazardous materials crews were on the scene because the semitrailer leaked fuel, Langford said.

Most of those injured were either in the bus shelter underneath the elevated train station or in the station's stairwell, Rodriguez said.

Engineers determined there was no structural damage to the overhead station, but the stairs sustained 'very significant damage,' said CTA President Ron Huberman. Trains on the Red Line, which runs to the city's far South Side from downtown, will not stop at the station until further notice, he said.

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Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.