В Чикаго, рано сутринта на 24 март, влак от линията Blue Line на градска транспортна система CTA е дерайлирал – блъснал се е в платформата на станцията край международно летище O’Hare (Вж. снимката).
Летището е едно от най-оживените в света и там работят голям процент от българските емигранти.
При инцидента са ранени 30 души от пътниците. Четирима са по-тежко, а при останалите нараняванията не представляват никакъв риск за живота .
Към момента на писане на новината, влаковете не пътуват между летището и гарата „Rosemont“. Пуснати са специални автобуси, които извозват пътници и персонал.
Ето какво пише за произшествието вестник Chicago Tribune:
More than 30 people were injured when a CTA Blue Line train ran into a platform at O’Hare International Airport and came to rest on an escalator this morning, officials said.
Six people were listed in fair-to-serious condition and 26 in good-to-fair condition, fire officials on the scene said. Nine of those people were transported to Resurrection Hospital, eight each went to Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center and Swedish Covenant Hospital, and seven went to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. It’s not known if the injured were all passengers on the train or if some were pedestrians.
The operator of the train „was walking and talking as we were investigating,“ Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said at a press conference at O’Hare. National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene investigating, officials said.
The eight-car train jumped a bumper at the end of the line and ended up on an escalator around 2:50 a.m., according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
The train was wedged up to almost the top of the staircase commuters use when entering O’Hare from the Blue Line terminal there.
CTA spokesman Brian Steele told reporters that the train appeared to going faster than normal when entering the station. „We will be looking at everything — equipment, signals, the human factor,“ Steele said.
Trains were stopped at O’Hare but running between the Logan Square and Rosemont stops. CTA spokeswoman Lambrini Lukidis said buses were being used between the Rosemont and O’Hare stops.
At the scene, a Chicago Police Department dog sniffed media trucks parked at the upper level of Terminal 3 between the inside and outside lanes as cars rushed by.
Downstairs, an annoyed customer approached crime scene tape and said he had a flight to catch.
An officer paused before speaking, and with a slight smirk and dry delivery, said, „Well, a train derailed. It doesn’t happen every day sir.“
The train tracker above the station still showed that an outbound train was due in two minutes.
