A speeding Amtrak train struck two people, killing one and seriously injuring the second, Friday night as they walked north along a remote stretch of tracks in Lake Forest, Lake Forest Deputy Police Chief Dave Field said.
The northbound train was using a section track owned by the Metra commuter rail system when it struck a man and woman near Conway Road, about a quarter-mile north of the Telegraph Road Metra station.
The location is not near any designated pedestrian crossing, and the individuals were trespassing on the tracks, a Metra spokeswoman said.
The Lake Forest police dispatch center received the accident call at approximately 5:48 p.m. The man was found dead at the scene.
The 19-year-old woman was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville with undisclosed injuries. She was in critical but stable condition, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.
Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole would not speculate on why they were on the tracks or how the accident happened.
Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller he did not have any information to identify the dead man, but said he was probably in his late teens was “likely local.”
Amtrak officials said the Hiawatha 339 from Chicago to Milwaukee was traveling at 69 mph. No injuries were reported to any of the 138 passengers.
North and southbound trains on Metra’s Milwaukee District North Line were delayed because of the accident, officials said.
Investigators were at the accident scene past 9 p.m. The accident happened along a stretch of tracks bound on both sides by trees and shrubs bordering a residential neighborhood.
It is the second train fatality in Lake Forest in recent months.
A Grayslake woman was killed Dec. 10, 2009 at Lake Forest’s Telegraph Road Metra station when she was hit by an Amtrak train as she ran across the crosswalk. Tracy Spradlin, 43, thought the Amtrak was a Metra train that would stop at the station.
The fatal accident prompted officials to close a crosswalk at the station, forcing pedestrians to reach the east platform from a path further north.
In February 2008, Jean McNeill, 51, of Round Lake, was killed by a speeding Amtrak while crossing in front of what she thought was a slowing Metra train.
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