Train Derailment at O'Hare Airport In Chicago Leaves 32 Injured; What Happened?
A Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train derailed early Monday morning and left 32 people injured.
The train jumped the tracks and landed on an escalator, but serious injuries were avoided. None of the 32 people suffered any life-threatening injuries and only some had to be taken to the hospital.
"As you might expect, someone who has been in a train accident is worried about the worst," Dr. Douglas Propp of Lutheran General Hospital said to WGN. "You can imagine, people early in the morning, not expecting anything like this to happen, would be bothered by it. They came here, we reassured them. We evaluated them. Obviously, the clinical people put their minds at ease. And also, pastoral care is here to meet their needs."
Of course, nobody expects a train accident but this was even more unexpected considering the time of day it happened. According to the Chicago Fire Department, the crash was at 2:52 a.m., making for quite a hectic morning commute for people in Chicago and in the surrounding area.
Although rare, these public transportation accidents have occurred more than just once in recent months. In the New York City metro area, four people were killed and at least 60 others were injured this past December when a Metro North train derailed on its way from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal in New York City's borough of Manhattan. The crash occurred in the Bronx borough of the city. The MTA has since been reviewing its train systems and many have complained that the Metro North prioritizes on-time reliability over safety.
What do you think about all of these public transportation crashes and accidents? Do you think we need to see improvements to the safety of these trains or is it not as necessary as some people say it is? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.