CTA Yellow Line crashes into snow plow doing scheduled training, sending two dozen to hospitals: ‘I am glad to be alive’
Humdia Ahmad heard a loud thud on the Yellow Line train she was riding and was violently flung forward.
Up until that moment Thursday morning, her commute to school at DePaul University had been typical. Then, the Yellow Line train rounded a curve and slammed into a CTA snowplow moving slowly down the tracks in front of it, Chicago Fire Department officials said.
She reoriented herself, and saw others in her car — the second on the train — were also confused. Glass was shattered toward the front of the car, and one man’s leg seemed to have hit a plexiglass divider. Another passenger hit his head on a divider and fell onto the seats. Ahmad, 20, bumped into a rail but didn’t have any major bruising or injuries.
When emergency responders showed up, Ahmad and the other passengers in her car walked to the front of the train to exit. That was when she heard the train operator “screaming in pain” and saw blood on the floor and rails, she said.
“When we actually got out I saw the front of the train, and it was completely busted open — the glass, everything,” she said. “Thank god I’m OK, but I was very worried for everyone in the first car who had to experience that.”
All told, 23 people, including four children, were taken to hospitals after the crash, near the border of Evanston and Chicago where the Yellow Line from Skokie ends at the Howard station, according to the fire department. Many of the injured were taken to Swedish Hospital, Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital and Ascension St. Francis Hospital, according to hospital and fire officials.
Three of the people were in serious or critical condition, though no injuries were believed to be life-threatening.
Thirty-eight were seen by paramedics, including seven CTA employees, but 15 declined to be taken to the hospital, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. One of the injured CTA employees was the operator of the train, who was seriously injured, and two others were on the snowplow, said Eric Dixon, president of the union that represents CTA’s train employees.
The crash happened around 10:35 a.m. as the Yellow Line train was near a rail yard, approaching the Howard station, fire officials said. The train was moving at a normal speed, Langford said, but came around a curve and struck a slower diesel-powered snow removal train that was moving in the same direction on the same track. It was a sunny day, with temperatures in the mid-60s.
In a statement, CTA President Dorval Carter did not address the reasons the snowplow and train were on the same tracks, and said the agency would cooperate with the National Transportation Safety Board, which was sending a team to investigate the crash. CTA referred questions to the NTSB, which will lead the investigation.
“Right now, our focus is on the customers and CTA employees who were injured in this incident,” Carter said.
A source familiar with the incident said the snowplow was on the tracks for scheduled training.
The crash is the latest challenge for CTA, which has faced complaints about unreliable service, conditions on trains and buses and concerns about personal safety in recent years.
By late Thursday afternoon, one lawsuit related to the crash had already been filed. Cleon Hawkins, 52, sued CTA, accusing the agency of negligence. His attorney, Joseph Murphy, said Hawkins injured his shoulders and leg in the crash while riding in the second car on the train.
Hawkins was riding from Skokie, where his children live, to a day care center on the South Side, he told the Tribune from his hospital bed. He is a magician, illusionist and hypnotist who takes the Yellow Line at least five days a week.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, he used self-hypnosis to manage his pain, he said.
“I am glad to be alive,” he said. “It was a shock. I’m glad I didn’t hit my head.”
His first thought when the crash occurred was that a bomb had gone off.
“I thought that the train was destroyed,” he said. “People (were) thrown all over the train. People were screaming. I was laying down, trying to compose myself. I was in serious pain.”
The collision was loud enough that other workers and pedestrians nearby heard it Thursday.
Ketan Patel, who works nearby, heard a “very big boom” at about 10:30 a.m. He said he immediately left the back office in the Evanston Mart, initially thinking one of the gas pumps outside had exploded.
“I got scared, started running out,” Patel, the store’s manager, said.
About five minutes later he saw what he thought to be nearly 50 ambulance, police and fire vehicles rushing to crash site, located just minutes from the store.
CTA service on the Yellow, Red and Purple lines, each of which are served by the Howard station, was suspended for much of the morning. The Red and Purple lines resumed normal service by early afternoon, but Yellow Line service remained suspended into the evening.
The crash was not the first for CTA in the last decade, nor the first major issue on the Yellow Line.
In 2019, a Brown Line train collided with a Purple Line train near the Sedgwick station, halting trains for about an hour and sending 14 people to hospitals, all in good or fair condition.
In 2014, a Blue Line train pulling into the station at O’Hare International Airport crashed through a barrier at the end of the tracks and landed on top of an escalator after the rookie operator dozed off. The crash injured more than 30 people and caused roughly $11 million in damages, and lead to operational changes at the CTA, including lowering the speed limit for trains approaching the O’Hare platform.
The following year, an embankment along the Yellow Line collapsed during a neighboring construction project, and Skokie Swift service was halted for 5 ½ months.
The latest crash drew responses from Chicago and Illinois elected officials, who thanked responders on scene.
“My administration is closely monitoring the train derailment on the North Side and will direct any available resources needed,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker posted on X, previously known as Twitter. “Thank you to the CFD firefighters and first responders on the scene.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement, “Our thoughts are with all affected and we are grateful for our brave first responders on the scene. We are working closely with emergency services as we continue to monitor this incident.”
Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who represents the area, also issued a statement.
“This is horrible news. My team and I are closely monitoring the situation unfolding following the CTA Yellow Line train crash near the Howard Station,” she said on X. “Thank you to all the first responders. I’m sending love and well wishes to all those who were injured.”
Two of the Yellow Line’s three stations are in Skokie, and many of the train’s riders hail from the suburb, taking the train south to access the Red Line and Chicago.
“Our hearts go out to everyone involved,” said Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen. “I hope everyone involved is going to recover and be OK,” he added.
Chicago Tribune’s Deanese Williams Harris contributed.
