More than 30 hurt in Chicago train crash

An eight-car Chicago commuter train ploughed across a platform and scaled an escalator at an underground station at one of America’s busiest airports, injuring 32 people on board, officials said.
By The Newsroom
Published 24th Mar 2014, 16:49 BST

No one suffered life-threatening injuries in the Blue Line derailment at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago fire commissioner Jose Santiago said.

An enormous disaster was avoided thanks to the timing of the crash at 2.50am local time. The bustling station is usually packed with travellers making their way to or from Chicago from the major airport, and a Chicago Transit Authority official said the crash happened at a traditionally quiet time.

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Denise Adams, a passenger on the train, told the Chicago Sun-Times she heard a loud noise during the impact. “I heard a ‘Boom!’ and when I got off the train, the train was all the way up the escalator,” she said. “It was a lot of panic.”

CTA investigators , 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. The train appeared to have been going too fast as it approached the end-of-line station.

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