Two passenger trains collided on Monday near Chicago. An empty 4-car "ghost train" left the Forest Park yard and traveled toward the Harlem station and eventually collided with a 40-passenger train, NBC reported yesterday.
On Monday, around 8 am, an unmanned 4-car train travelling at 20 mph collided with a 40-passenger 8-car train that was parked at the Harlem Avenue stop in Forest Park, Illinois. Chicago Transit Authority officials are baffled and have no explanation on why this incident happened. Investigators are calling it a mystery.
A rail supervisor reported that the "ghost train" was parked at the Forest Park yard awaiting repairs. He was stunned when it passed by him with no one in it travelling on the wrong set of tracks toward the Harlem Avenue stop.
"Either Casper the Ghost was driving the train, someone was operating it from possibly the third fourth or fifth cars, or somebody with extensive knowledge sabotaged this train. In my 27 years here, I've never seen a train start by itself," CTA Union President Robert Kelly said.
Kelly claims that none of the workers in the rail yard started the train and none of the safety mechanisms worked. No one can explain how the train was started and managed to clear two switches
"This train never should have got to Forest Park station. It should have been tripped in the yard, going through the interlock. I don't know how that happened," Kelly said.
Many of the westbound train's passengers were transported to local hospitals for minor injuries.
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