Amtrak Train From Texas Collides With Truck Outside Chicago
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WILMINGTON, Ill. (AP) — An Amtrak train headed to Chicago from San Antonio slammed into a semitrailer on Friday at a crossing near the Illinois community of Wilmington.
The train, the Texas Eagle, which left San Antonio on Thursday, hit the trailer of a truck that was obstructing the tracks at about 4 p.m., said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. None of the train's crew members or its 203 passengers were injured, Magliari said.
The trailer was overturned and its contents were scattered along the tracks. The truck's cab separated from the trailer and ended up on the other side of the train.
It wasn't immediately known if the truck's driver was injured.
Amtrak passenger Sam Herwitz, 23, boarded the train in St. Louis and was sitting in the last car.
"I personally didn't know we hit something. I thought we just hit the brakes," Herwitz said by phone as he waited for school buses to take passengers to a high school. "It was one sudden halt."
Herwitz said 20 minutes passed before passengers were told to leave the train. It was then he learned there had been an accident.
None of the cars of the train left the track as a result of the accident.
The train will be halted until police finish their investigation and train workers inspect the tracks, Magliari said.
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