Child and two adults are killed when Metra train smashes into their car on railroad crossing at 79mph and then pushes it for half-a-mile in Chicago

A child and two adults were killed on Saturday when a Metra train smashed into their car on a railroad crossing at 79mph, before pushing it for half-a-mile in Chicago.

The train, heading north into the city, struck the vehicle just after 5 p.m. at the railroad crossing of 107th Street and Vincennes Avenue on the city's Far South Side, Chicago fire officials told the Chicago Sun-Times.

All three passengers - a man, woman and child - were pronounced dead at the scene of where the train came to a stop near 103rd Street and Vincennes Avenue, with Chicago fire officials saying they were believed to be family. 

A child and two adults were killed on Saturday when a Metra train smashed into their car on a railroad crossing at 79mph, before pushing it for half-a-mile in Chicago. Pictured: The wreckage is seen where the car came to a stop after being struck by the train on Saturday

Pictured: A map showing where the train struck the vehicle, and where it pushed it to

The force of the impact caused the train's front car to partially derail, according to Metra spokeswoman Meg Reile, and at some point the vehicle caught fire.

The train's 43-year-old conductor was injured in the crash and transported to Little Company of Mary Hospital in a good condition, officials said.

An engineer also suffered an injury to his leg, with Metra spokesman Michael Gillis saying at the scene that both employees' injuries were non-life threatening. 

Reile said 41 passengers aboard the train declined medical attention and were transported to a different station so they could continue their way into the city. 

Pictures from the scene showed the crumpled frame of the vehicle at the front of the train, the front few cars of which were off the rails. Rocks from the tracks littered the intersection at 103rd Street and Vincennes Avenue.

'It's heart-rending,' Gillis said in his statement. 'It's the worst thing I've seen. I've been doing this job for 12 years, this is the worst scene I've seen.' 

The train, heading north into the city, struck the vehicle just after 5 p.m. at the railroad crossing of 107th Street and Vincennes Avenue on the city's Far South Side, Chicago fire officials told the Chicago Sun-Times

All three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene of where the train came to a stop near 103rd Street and Vincennes Avenue , with Chicago fire officials saying they were believed to be family 

Pictured: Metra police and engineers work the scene where a train collided with a vehicle, killing three occupants, including a child, in the 10300 block of South Vincennes in the East Beverly neighborhood of Chicago, Sunday, June 27, 2021

Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times, Matt Townsend - who was riding back to the city with his girlfriend - said he was still trying to process the 'traumatic' event. 

'It was hard to see out of the windows because there was so much dirt on both sides of the train,' Townsend said in a phone interview on Sunday night with the news outlet. 'And I knew there was something wrong at that time.' 

The 47-year-old said he was in either the third or fourth rail carriage, and that people were in shock as they were escorted off the train.

'Everybody was anxious, tensions were running high, and we were wanting to get off faster than the line was allowing us to,' Townsend told the Sun-Times. 

'... The car was unrecognizable as a car, it was just a clumped up piece of metal... and I started seeing flames come from the car, and that was scary. But most importantly, I knew that people had died,' he added.

Sandy Wilson, who witnesses the event from across the street at the intersection where the train came to a stop said she saw two men run and try and help the victims, before crews worked to remove the child and woman from the vehicle.

The force of the impact caused the train's front car to partially derail, according to Metra spokeswoman Meg Reile, and at some point the vehicle caught fire 

The train's 43-year-old conductor was injured in the crash and transported to Little Company of Mary Hospital in a good condition, officials said. An engineer also suffered an injury to his leg, with Metra spokesman Michael Gillis saying at the scene that both employees' injuries were non-life threatening 

Reile said 41 passengers aboard the train declined medical attention and were transported to a different station so they could continue their way into the city 

Metra has opened an investigation into the incident, and all Metra Rock Island services have been stopped near 103rd street.     

It was not immediately known how fast the train was traveling at the time of the collision, though Reile said the speed limit for trains in that area is 79 mph.

'Our understanding at this point in time that everything was functioning as intended,' Reile said.

'However, we will be doing - and this is normal operating procedure anytime there´s an incident involving a train whether it´s a fatality or not - we take downloads and check the equipment to make sure it was functioning at the time properly. 

'But we have no information at this time to indicate that our signals and gates were not working.'

Pictures from the scene showed the crumpled frame of the vehicle at the front of the train, the front few cars of which were off the rails. Rocks from the tracks littered the intersection at 103rd Street and Vincennes Avenue

Metra has opened an investigation into the incident, and all Metra Rock Island services have been stopped near 103rd street

It was not immediately known how fast the train was traveling at the time of the collision, though Reile said the speed limit for trains in that area is 79 mph