A young teenager and an elderly woman were killed and a man was hospitalized after a Metra train struck a car at a crossing in Ingleside Sunday afternoon.
The Fox Lake Fire Protection District and Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded around 12:15 p.m. Sunday to Wilson Road and West Larkin Lane in Ingleside.
Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that outbound Metra train 2603 was traveling on the Milwaukee District North Line when it struck a car.
The crash was at the Wilson Road crossing just south of the Ingleside Metra station.
There were three occupants in the car. Two of them were pronounced dead at the scene, Gillis said.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said a sheriff’s deputy, who was stopped facing northbound at the tracks, witnessed the crash.
A preliminary investigation shows the driver of a Hyundai Elantra, a 70-year-old Antioch man, was traveling southbound on Wilson Road.
The crossingโs warning lights and gates lowered prior to a westbound train crossing the roadway.
Covelli said the driver of the Hyundai did not slow and drove through the gate, directly in the path of the train.
The train struck the driverโs side of the Hyundai.
A passenger in the back seat of the Hyundai, a 75-year-old Antioch woman, was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced deceased at the scene.
Another passenger in the back seat, a 13-year-old boy, was critically injured and pronounced deceased at the scene, Covelli said.
Firefighters had to extricate the male driver from the car because he was trapped.
The driver was then transported to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville with non-life-threatening injuries.
Lake County Chief Deputy Coroner Steve Newton said that autopsies on both victims are scheduled for Monday.
No one on the train was injured, Gillis said.
Train traffic was down for two or three hours Sunday afternoon. The tracks have since reopened.
The crash remains under investigation by the Metra Police Department with assistance from the Lake County Sheriffโs Office Technical Crash Investigations Team.