BNSF passenger killed during ‘devastating’ collision with semi in Clarendon Hills, Metra says

A woman riding an inbound BNSF train was killed Wednesday morning when the train and a semitruck crashed, according to a Metra spokeswoman.

The wreck was the second in the transit agency’s history to involve a passenger fatality.

The woman’s identity and age were not being immediately released and the DuPage County coroner’s office was called to the scene, Metra spokeswoman Meg Thomas-Reile said.

BNSF train 1242, which had originated out of Downers Grove, collided with the semitruck about 8:10 a.m. at Prospect Avenue, killing the woman and injuring four others, including two passengers, who had injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening.

A conductor and an engineer also suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Thomas-Reile said.

Train 1242 had not been running its normal schedule and was running express to Union Station at the time, because of a mechanical failure that involved another train.

“It was expressing … it wasn’t stopping at Clarendon Hills,” Thomas-Reile said. “They were shuffling around some of the service I’m sure to catch up and get everything back to normal.”

There were likely about 60 or fewer passengers on board, or about 10 per car, judging from reports of runs earlier this week at the same time.

“It’s devastating to all involved,” Thomas-Reile said, adding the only other time Metra had a fatality of a passenger in its history was in 2005.

On Sept. 17, 2005, about 8:35 a.m. a Rock Island inbound commuter train derailed going through a 10 mph switch at 69 mph, Thomas-Reile said, adding that two passenger were killed and 46 others suffered injuries but were released the same day.

A spokeswoman for the DuPage County coroner’s office said they did not immediately have further information.

The NTSB had taken over the investigation as of Wednesday afternoon and a service alert on Metra’s website said the BNSF Line would be suspended until further notice. Customers may want to consider using the Union Pacific West Line as an alternative.

Normally the BNSF Line brings nearly 3,000 commuters downtown on workdays.

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rsobol@chicagotribune.com