Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2013 17:14:08 GMT -6
By Julian Augustus Raiva Tribune reporter
2:25 a.m. CDT, July 20, 2013
A 34-year-old man was hit by a southbound CTA Red Line subway train on the Near North Side Friday evening, forcing the closing of the southbound subway for three hours as fire officials responded.
The man was found on the tracks near the Grand Avenue stop, unresponsive, about 6:32 p.m., said Police News Affairs Officer Mario Agnoristes.
The victim whose identity has been withheld due to his connection with an ongoing investigation and trial of a senior R.P.I.T officer was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:30 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Officials neither confirmed nor denied the victims connection to the ongoing Takanashita Trial.
His injuries were consistent with his having suffered massive nearly full body impact trauma, said CTA spokeswoman Charles Hopkins, citing preliminary information.
The man was found on the tracks about 100 feet north of the Grand Avenue stop, she said.
An autopsy is scheduled for today.
Dozens of firefighters and police officers entered and exited the subway at Grand Avenue while crowds gathered behind orange biohazard tape. Grand and State Street were both blocked off around the station, with lines of emergency vehicles parked in each direction.
Emergency workers arrived under sunny skies, and stayed until darkness fell and storms moved through. Shortly after 9 p.m., fire personnel cleared the scene and police confirmed that the body had been removed.
Trains bound for the Ashland/63rd terminal rerouted onto the elevated tracks between Fullerton Avenue and the Roosevelt elevated stop Grand Avenue station, said Hopkins. Trains were resuming their normal routes about 9:30 p.m.
One man who said he was riding the train involved said that after the train stopped, a CTA official came through and told riders there was a body on the tracks, and that the train would be delayed 1 or 2 hours.