WILMETTE, IL – A 76-year old Evanston, IL man was killed when he was struck by a Union Pacific Metra train near the Wilmette station on March 18, 2011. Wilmette is located about 19 miles north of Chicago, Illinois in Cook County.
The incident appeared to be a suicide. According to eyewitnesses, the man walked onto the tracks, crouched down and was hit by the oncoming train.
The accident occurred at about 4:45 p.m. when the man was hit by Union Pacific Train No. 335. According to a Wilmette Police release, he was killed instantly.
There was no injury to railroad workers or passengers as a result of the incident.
The two biggest newspapers in Chicago are the Sun Times and Chicago Tribune. Both papers carried stories about the incident.
The Chicago Tribune reports:
A spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed that a male pedestrian was struck and killed. An exact age was not available but the victim appeared to be an adult, an office spokesman said.
The train was scheduled to arrive in Kenosha at 5:39 p.m. but was stopped near the Wilmette station at Forest Avenue, according to the Metra website. The train did not have a scheduled stop in Wilmette when the accident happened.
At about 6:30 p.m., the train was allowed to continue and by 7:23 p.m. all trains were moving, said Reile. The incident had caused train schedules to be pushed back between an hour and a half to two hours, she said.
The accident remains under investigation.
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