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Train derailment at Chicago O'Hare international airport injures 32 Train derailment at Chicago O'Hare international airport injures 32
(35 minutes later)
An eight-car commuter train derailed early Monday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, injuring 32 people on board after it failed to stop at an underground station at one of the nation's busiest airports. An eight-car Chicago commuter train plowed across a platform and scaled an escalator at an underground station at one of the nation's busiest airports early on Monday, injuring 32 people on board, officials said.
Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said the train “climbed over the last stop, jumped up on the sidewalk and then went up the stairs and escalator”. Transit authority spokesman Brian Steele said authorities were trying to piece together what happened, but that the train was likely traveling too fast. 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.
The derailment happened around 2.50am. Chicago Transit Authority (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 around 2.50am. The National Transportation Safety Board has been notified.
Investigators aren't sure how many people were on board, but say none of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening. The injured were taken to four hospitals. "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."
Steele said crews were working to remove the train and fix the escalator and were not sure when the station will reopen. 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.
Steele said: "Apparently [it] was traveling at a rate of speed that clearly was higher than a normal train would be.”
It wasn't clear how many people were on board at the time of the crash, but it took place during what is "typically among our lowest ridership time", Steele said.
The injured were taken to four hospitals and Santiago said most were able to walk away from the wreck unaided.
In September, a CTA Blue Line train slammed into another train at a suburban Chicago station, injuring as many as four dozen commuters.