Canadian Pacific train derails near Chicago

A train operated by Canadian Pacific has derailed in a suburb of Chicago. 

Two of the train’s cars came off the tracks around 12:45 p.m. Sunday in Franklin Park, which is about four miles south of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. 

The company said in a statement to Fox32Chicago that one of the derailed cars was carrying wheat while the other was empty.  

“The train was wobbling a bit. We heard loud noises, banging, crashing,” Tyler Verschelden, a witness, told the station. 

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The cause of the derailment was not immediately clear. 

FOX Business has reached out to Canadian Pacific for further comment. 

In their statement to Fox32 Chicago, the company said there were no hazardous materials onboard the train. 

“One of the cars started leaning a little bit and actually started scraping against the rocks,” another witness, Patrick Stralina, told the station. 

Following the derailment Sunday, workers with heavy machinery were seen removing the train piece by piece, Fox32Chicago reports. 

Parts of the train were blocking crossings after the incident unfolded. 

Canadian Pacific reportedly said its staff was on-site assessing the situation with cooperation from Metra Metropolitan Rail, Chicago’s commuter rail system. 

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The incident happened following a toxic derailment involving a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, in early February. 

At the start of March, another Norfolk Southern train derailed in Springfield Township, Ohio. That derailment was captured on a dashcam video. 

Footage taken from a vehicle waiting at a Clark County railroad crossing gate on March 4 showed two of that train’s cars suddenly rising upward as it traveled along the tracks. 

As one of the cars separated from the rails, it smashed into the crossing gate, sending debris flying. 

Days later, a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Alabama hours before the company’s CEO Alan Shaw testified to Congress about the East Palestine, Ohio, disaster. 

A CSX train also derailed in West Virginia in March after it struck a rock slide, causing a diesel spill. 

That derailment happened in what state officials described as a “somewhat remote” area south of Sandstone, inside the New River National Park and Preserve.  

“The derailment injured three crew members, caused parts of the train to catch fire, and sent at least one locomotive and one fuel tank into the New River,” the West Virginia Emergency Management Division said in a statement. 

CSX said as a result of the derailment, “An unknown quantity of diesel fuel and oil spilled from the derailed locomotives and environmental measures will be deployed in the New River for containment.”