Police on Tuesday were continuing to investigate after a pedestrian was struck by a Chicago bound Amtrak train in Glenview earlier in the day, authorities said.
The Glenview Fire Department was called to the area of the 2300 block of Lehigh Avenue on a call of a “train vs. pedestrian” shortly after noon Tuesday, the fire department said in a release. It said the pedestrian was treated and transported to Lutheran General where they were in critical condition.
The scene was turned over to the Metra Police for further investigation, the release said.
“It was an Amtrak Hiawatha train headed to Chicago with service between Milwaukee and Chicago,” Metra spokesperson, Meg Reile said Tuesday. “They operate on our tracks. It was on a Metra line so Metra police are investigating it.”
She said the Amtrak train does not stop in the area where the pedestrian was struck and that there were not any Metra trains scheduled to go through that area at that time.
“There were freight trains in the area so I don’t know if that had any impact on what that person thought they were doing,” Reile said.
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She said the Metra police investigation will include making sure the lights and bells at all nearby crossing were working, securing video from the train if available, and that if possible investigators will interview the person who was struck by the train and the train crew.
She also said that while investigators still do not know how the pedestrian ended up on the track, sometimes a person waiting to cross tracks will see a train go by and although the warning lights and bells are still going they walk on the tracks and get hit by a train they don’t see that is going in the opposite direction.
“That’s why you have to wait until the bells and lights cease because there could be another train,” she said. “There’s an old operational life saver that says ‘Expect a train from any direction at any time.'”
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.