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Passenger On Derailed Train: 'I Hope This Car Doesn't Tilt And Fall Over'

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Injured passengers from the CTA Green Line train derailment were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center.

CBS 2's Jim Williams reports four of the seven passengers were brought to the hospital.  A hospital spokesperson said they're in good condition. Most of the passengers refused treatment, but for all it was a harrowing morning.

It was what the passengers heard and what they felt that told them this was not an ordinary ride on the "L."

"All the sudden, it kind of jolted and you could tell something was a little bit off, which it was," said passenger Jane Miller.

"It definitely rocked," added passenger Drake Hills. "It reminded if your car if you drove a car, you know it slid up against the wall of some sort of rail on the freeway."

Marvin Robinson, who lives next to the tracks, said his apartment building shook.

"I see the train basically rocking, shaking like it's going to fall off," Robinson said. "People hollering and screaming, just going crazy. I was scared. Then the police started coming from everywhere."

Emergency responders had to use a cherry picker to bring down the injured from the elevated tracks. Some were on stretchers.

"They got the people who had some minor neck pain first, but they were getting everybody cause I was in there. I was maybe one of the last people," Miller said.

The fire department took seven people to the hospital. Most of the passengers refused treatment, according to officials.

Before Drake Hills was rescued, as sat in the train, it was a nervous wait.

"Immediately I thought 'I hope this car doesn't tilt and fall over.' So I'm just glad that that didn't happen."

The three other injured passengers were taken to Northwestern Hospital. Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford said no passengers suffered broken bones or cuts.

RELATED: Still No Answers On Why A CTA Green Line Train Derailed

 

CBS 2 has the history of CTA derailments including a deadly one in 1977 on CBSChicago.com.

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