Freight Train Strikes, Kills Naperville Pedestrian
Updated 5/25/11 10:36 p.m.
CHICAGO (STMW) - Naperville and Metra police late Wednesday continued to investigate the apparent suicide of a man who stepped in front of a speeding freight train at Metra's Fourth Avenue station north of the city's downtown.
Police at the scene said a man who appeared to be in his 40s stepped directly in front of the eastbound train about 7:15 p.m. from in front of the station waiting room on the south side of the tracks.
The train came to a halt, blocking Loomis Street to the east. Emergency workers about 9 p.m. were in the process of recovering the victim's body. Naperville police Cmdr. Ray Adkins said the identity of the victim was not known. He expected to have further information about the incident within the next several hours.
The incident snarled westbound train traffic, although one Metra train got through the station about 8:45 p.m. and continued westbound.
It was the second time in two days that a pedestrian has been struck by a train at a Metra railway station in Naperville.
Late Tuesday afternoon, a 53-year-old Naperville woman fell onto the tracks at the Metra station near North Aurora Road and Route 59 in Naperville, about a mile west of the Fourth Avenue depot. She was struck by an outbound Metra train.
Authorities have not identified the woman, who apparently fell accidentally before being hit by the train. She suffered what a Naperville Fire Department official characterized as an injury not considered life-threatening.
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