Dozens of people were injured on Thursday morning when a Chicago Transit Authority train struck a plow on the tracks on Chicago’s North Side, the authorities said.
Twenty-three people were taken to hospitals in conditions ranging from serious to fair, with head injuries and other types of non-life-threatening injuries, Keith Gray, an assistant deputy chief paramedic with the Chicago Fire Department, said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Fifteen others were injured but refused transport to hospitals, Chief Gray said. Seven of the people who were injured are Chicago Transit Authority employees, he said.
The transit authority said in an emailed statement that it had received a report at about 10:39 a.m. of a Yellow Line train “making contact” with rail equipment in the Howard Rail Yard.
The train was traveling southbound from Skokie, Ill., when it struck a plow on the track, Robert Jurewicz, a district chief with the Chicago Fire Department, said at the news conference.
The transit authority said service on the Red, Purple and Yellow lines, which meet at the Howard Street station, had been suspended while Fire Department activity took place. Television news footage showed medics treating people at the scene and helping some of them into ambulances.
Service on the Yellow and Purple lines remained suspended on Thursday afternoon, according to the transit authority. Service has resumed on the Red Line, but with significant delays, the authority said.
Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois responded on X, formerly Twitter, to “terrible news out of Chicago,” saying that his administration was closely monitoring the situation and would make resources available.