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Trains collide in Chicago

The locomotive of an Amtrak train rests on top of a container car after the train plowed into the back of a freight train on Friday near Chicago. PHOTO: AP

A passenger train plowed into the back of a freight train and crushed one end of a boxcar under its wheels, injuring dozens of people, some seriously. Most of the 187 passengers walked away unhurt.

Passengers were hurled into the seats in front of them in the accident on Friday on the city's South Side, and four people had to be pulled from the front of the train, where the engine was located, authorities said.

The collision sent 71 people to a dozen hospitals, most of them in stable or good condition, according to the Chicago Fire Department. Three people were expected to be hospitalized overnight, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt said.

The damage to the passenger train was mostly to its engine, where some workers of the Amtrak national passenger rail service were on board, authorities said. It was unclear how many of the five Amtrak workers who were on the train were hurt. The train's three double-decker passenger cars remained upright.

No one was in the section of the Norfolk Southern freight train that was struck, and neither of the two workers aboard was hurt.

The Amtrak train was en route from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Chicago. The freight train was traveling from Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Chicago.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said he had no details about what caused the accident or what the freight train was carrying.
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