Metra trains collide in Aurora

Investigators are looking at how two slow-moving commuter trains collided Wednesday afternoon in Aurora, sending 30 passengers to local hospitals with minor injuries.

“Why two trains ended up on the same track we don’t know,” Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway spokesman Steve Forsberg said. “We are studying the signal system, and the onboard event recorders will tell us the exact speed of the trains and when the brakes were applied.”

The trains, headed in opposite directions, collided as they traveled through the train yard at 3:25 p.m., a few hundred yards east of the station, the last stop on the line the BNSF operates for Metra.

The railroad, the Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, officials said.

“We intend to take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” Forsberg said.

The trains were passing through the Hill Yard, where BNSF stores Metra trains overnight, according to a company statement.

The engine of train No. 1235, scheduled to pull into the station at 3:23 p.m., hit the lead passenger car of the outbound train, said Metra spokeswoman Audrey Renteria.

That engine and about six cars on the two trains derailed, though none flipped over, said Aurora Fire Marshal Kent Becker.

Train No. 1270, which had left the station about five minutes earlier, was operating in the reverse mode, which means its engine was pushing the train. An engineer operates the train from a booth in the front of the passenger car.

Under investigation is whether a switching problem or human error could have caused the accident, Renteria said.

The trains were carrying an estimated 60 passengers. Some were treated at the scene, while others were taken to two local hospitals, officials said.

“Some of them were getting out of their seats, gathering their briefcases and whatnot,” Becker said. “The impact caught everyone off guard, so of course it threw everyone forward into the train doors, train seats and other passengers.”

Lovera Graham, 13, who will be a freshman next year at East Aurora High School, was returning from art camp in Naperville. She was thrown into the seat in front of her when the two trains collided.

“I was sitting down,” she said as she left Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora. “My face hit the seat in front of me, and my glasses cut my face. And I had just gotten them fixed too.”

She ended up on the floor, blood running from her nose.

“I was hysterical. I started crying,” she said.

A man offered her a shirt from his bag to try to stop the bleeding and his cell phone to call her parents.

“I tried to prepare myself to go in and see her,” said her mother, Shawnetta. “When I saw her face cut up like that, I just broke down, but I’m just glad that she was able to walk out with me.”

Seventeen people were treated in Rush-Copley, spokeswoman Julie Busch said. All were in good condition with “strains, bruises, minor cuts and bruised heads,” she said.

Emergency room Dr. Cathy Coshal said passengers treated ranged from Lovera to an 86-year-old man and their reactions ran the gamut.

“[They] ranged anywhere from a little bit of panic to not remembering the accident,” she said. “Others were aware the train had been struck but not by what.”

She said some patients “were shook up; others showed a relative amount of calm. It was not a big panic scene here, by any stretch of the imagination, so that was nice.”

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Of 13 patients taken to Mercy Center in Aurora, one was admitted for two fractured ribs and lung contusions, said Nick Loise, a spokesman there. The others, including one child, were treated for minor injuries and released.

About 50 rescue workers from Aurora and six other area emergency services responded to the collision scene, Becker said.

After the accident, train service was limited to the Illinois Highway 59 station on the far east side of Aurora, with passengers being shuttled to and from the Aurora station. Officials sad they hope to restore full service by Thursday morning.

Passengers who board in Aurora may experience delays Thursday morning of 15 to 25 minutes, said Metra spokesman Frank Malone, because trains will travel more slowly through the station. Those boarding at the Illinois 59 station should experience no delays, he said.

Last December, Metra instituted an $11 million project to put global positioning systems on 261 cars serving all routes. The computerized train-tracking system allows Metra’s operations center to determine the location and speed of each train and where it is on the track. A cell phone system allows Metra’s command center to phone directions and safety information directly to any train.

Metra officials declined to say whether BNSF and federal investigators were using the tracking system to piece together what went wrong Wednesday.