(The following article by Robert C. Herguth was posted on the Chicago Sun-Times website on October 13. The BLE Safety Task Force is assisting with the investigation of this accident.)
CHICAGO — One woman had just run the Chicago Marathon in around 5 hours, 40 minutes. Another had finished her first day as a legal secretary for a new firm. Still another had been shopping in the Loop.
All three were returning home on Metra’s Rock Island District Line on Sunday afternoon, and consider themselves lucky to be alive.
The five-car, two-engine train derailed alongside the 47th Street Shops, tumbling and setting afire one locomotive and tilting several passenger cars.
While Chicago police classified 125 of the 210 or so riders as “walking wounded,” no one was killed and there were just a handful of serious injuries, authorities said. In all, more than 40 received some hospital treatment.
One track was damaged, but Metra officials believe Rock Island trains will be running this morning on an adjacent track. They may be 20 to 25 minutes late, however.
Exactly what caused the incident was under investigation. However, there are switches in the area, and railroad officials aren’t ruling out that someone tampered with them, a source said.
“Initially, it sounded like all the systems were operating correctly, including the signals, and therefore it would lead to the suspicion that maybe there was some form of sabotage,” the source said.
Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said of investigators: “Certainly they will consider whether there was an external factor up to and including sabotage.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, along with Metra, which will turn over the train’s equivalent of an airplane “black box” as well as satellite images of the crash, Pardonnet said. But the FBI was not actively involved, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said Sunday night.
Some railroad construction has been under way near the crash site, but Pardonnet doubts it’s a factor, adding the train engineer relayed “there was no indication of a problem” prior to the derailment.
The incident occurred around 4:40 p.m., just south of 47th Street between Federal and La Salle. Rock Island Train No. 519 left the Loop’s La Salle Street Station and hadn’t yet made its first stop.
“The first locomotive flipped onto its side and ignited in fire,” Pardonnet said.
The second engine jumped the track, so when it stopped it faced west — in contrast to the tracks, which stretch south to Joliet.
“All the cars derailed and sideswiped the building where we wash the [rail] cars,” she said.
Passenger accounts of the derailment differed slightly, but many riders said a loud noise — some called it “screeching” — and strong vibrations preceded a jolt and a feeling of tipping or even “floating” as the train ground to a halt. Smoke or dust also filled some cars.
Some riders fell to the floor and bumped heads on seats during the ordeal. Passenger Joan Filipowski, 49, had just run the marathon and was visibly shaken while walking from the train.
“We were planning to go home and it started swaying,” she said.
Kathleen Renner was returning home from a new job.
“I was just going through things in my bag, all of a sudden, when the train started going off course, the lights went off and everybody started going forward,” said the 51-year-old Blue Island resident.
Many bolted from the train when it stopped because they were afraid it would explode, she said.
Melissa Avila, 22, was returning from shopping when she felt a bump, heard a noise and fell to the floor. Avila said she doesn’t want to ride a train “for a long time.”
The Metra locomotives were almost new, and each cost around $3 million. At least one appears to be a total loss.