ROGERS PARK — A Yellow Line train crashed into machinery near the Howard Red Line station Thursday morning, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said.
The crash happened about 11 a.m., when a Yellow Line train traveling south from Skokie struck rail equipment while passing through the rail yard just north of Howard Street, according to the CTA.
Photos from the Chicago Fire Department show a badly damaged train car — its end caved in — on tracks near CTA machinery.
Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford told the Sun-Times the train rear-ended a slow moving snow plow a few hundred yards from the station.
Three people were hospitalized in critical condition, fire department officials said. Langford told the Tribune those injuries were not considered to be life-threatening.
Nine others were taken to hospitals in serious condition and 11 people were in fair condition, officials said. Four children were among the injured, according to the Tribune and Sun-Times.
Fifteen others refused medical attention at the scene. There were 38 people on the Yellow Line train that crashed, Fire Department officials said at the scene.
Eric Dixon, president of the union representing CTA employees, told the Tribune the train operator was seriously hurt and two employees on the snow plow also were hurt.
Fifteen ambulances responded to the scene, according to the Fire Department.
It was not immediately clear why the collision occurred. Ald. Maria Hadden (49th), speaking during a livestream shortly after the crash, said it was possible the train’s conductor had a medical emergency.
“We know there are injuries,” Hadden said. “I don’t know the extent of the damage.”
Officials from the National Transportation and Safety Board tweeted the agency is also investigating the crash.
The Chicago and Evanston fire departments responded to the crash, where a fire was struck, the Chicago agency shared on Twitter.
The Red Line was suspended between Howard Street and Belmont, with buses in service to act as shuttles between the closed stops, the CTA said in a service update. Red Line service resumed with delays just before 1 p.m. Thursday.
Purple Line trains were running again as of Thursday afternoon, while Yellow Line service is still suspended, according to the CTA website.
Paul Altamirano is a heating and cooling specialist working construction on a new building at 100 E. Chicago Ave. on the border of Evanston and Rogers Park when he heard a loud, metallic bang around 10:30 a.m. He thought the noise was related to construction work at his job site.
“I was at the gas station picking up some coffee when I ran into one of the passengers who told me about the crash,” he said.
Soon after he saw first responders arrive in droves and police told his crew, which was working on the building’s exterior, to leave the area, he said.
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