Speeding train crashes

last updated 8 January 2015

Chicago

A commuter train that derailed near downtown Chicago, killing two passengers, was traveling almost 60 mph over the speed limit, investigators said this week. The double-decker train was switching tracks, and should have been inching along at 10 mph. A “black box” indicated it was moving at 69 mph. The locomotive and five rail cars jumped the tracks, and slammed into a steel bridge. Dozens of the 185 passengers were injured. The engineer, who had been on the job just 45 days, has been placed on a suicide watch, investigators said. He and three other crew members were also tested for drugs and alcohol, a standard procedure. In 2003, another train, speeding at 70 mph, derailed while switching tracks on the same stretch of track, injuring 45 people.