JUNE 5, 2015
WILMINGTON, ILLINOIS
Eleven people were injured and taken to area hospitals
Friday when an Amtrak train headed to Chicago from San Antonio slammed into a
semi-trailer truck at a crossing near Wilmington.
The train, the Texas Eagle, which left San Antonio on
Thursday, hit the trailer of a truck that was obstructing the tracks at about 4
p.m., said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. Amtrak's equipment was cleared to
leave the scene at about 8 p.m. Friday night, and service on the line was back
to normal Saturday morning, Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz said.
"The debris was cleaned up, the track was inspected and
the equipment was allowed to proceed and the track was reopened," Schulz
said.
The 11 injured passengers were transported to Presence Saint
Joseph Medical Center and Silver Cross Hospital with non-life-threatening
injuries, police said in a news release Saturday.
According to Wilmington police, witnesses reported the truck
attempted to go around the crossing gates on New River Road.
"Wilmington police issued the driver of the truck,
Keith D. Morris of Joliet ... a citation for disregarding a signal indicating
the approach of a train while the gates were closing," police said in
their release.
Carol Troyer of Elkhart, Indiana, was in the train's fifth
car, among the 203 passengers on the train.
“I was sitting in my seat and all of a sudden I felt the
pressure from the brakes and heard the boom," she said. "Then of
course when the train stopped the trailer was pretty much right outside my
window.” Troyer said confusion followed the collision.
“Some people were saying, 'Get out, get out, get out of the
train. And we tried to go down and get out, well the doors were locked,"
she said. "And then they told us to go back up and sit down."
Brad Koch was traveling from Bloomington to Chicago on the
train Friday. He was speaking to someone when, suddenly, the train came to a
dead stop.
"I looked out the window, and I realized there was a
trailer sitting out there," Koch said. "All I saw was the trailer,
and all the sudden I look outside the other window, and there's the
truck."
The trailer was overturned and its contents were scattered
along the tracks. The truck's cab separated from the trailer and ended up on
the other side of the train.
According to police and witnesses on the scene, the truck
was carrying cold meats, which were strewn on the ground following the crash.
The truck, based out of Montgomery, was going to a U.S. Cold Storage facility.
Once such facility is located in Wilmington.
None of the cars of the train left the track as a result of
the accident.
More than 200 train passengers were moved to Wilmington High
School after being evacuated from the train because of a fuel leak from the
truck and a lack of power on the train, police said.
"Eventually, Amtrak sent coach buses to transport the
passengers to Chicago Union Station," police said.
A second Amtrak train was stopped behind the initial crash
site, and several of those passengers self-evacuated, choosing to find
alternate transportation because of the delay, police said.
Among the 16 area agencies responding Friday evening were
the Wilmington Police Department, the Wilmington Fire Protection District,
Wilmington Emergency Services and Disaster Agency, the Will County Sheriff's
Department, Elwood Police Department and the Illinois State Police.