CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (USBP) -- A double-decker train was traveling from Joliet to Chicago when the locomotive and its five carriages jumped the rails about eight kilometers south of Chicago's city center.

Two women were killed; a 22 year old who died on the train and a 30 year old pronounced dead later at a hospital, said Judy Pardonnet, a spokeswoman for Metra, the commuter rail system that services the Chicago area.

“Seventeen of the injured were in serious or critical condition,” said Assistant Deputy Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco. In all, 185 passengers and four crewmembers were on the train when it derailed in a neighborhood of homes and businesses.

The tracks are on a raised embankment next to a street, but magnificently none of the cars fell. Firefighters had to raise ladders just to the track to reach the traumatic scene.

Julie Arredondo was one of the passengers on the upper deck of the train when the accident happened. "Everyone was flying everywhere," she said. It was a horrific sight for all the passengers.

First thoughts are always terrorism these days, and certainly that was a thought present in each individual on the train that day.

It was not immediately clear what caused the derailment. However, after the derailment, there was a 30-foot gap between two of the cars, one of which had severe damage at the front end. The other cars remained upright but had left the tracks.

“The speed limit is 15 mph in the area,” Pardonnet said, but did not know how fast the train was going. Dozens of emergency vehicles and two medical helicopters were called to the scene while workers put up three red triage tents to treat people near the tracks.

Many considered themselves fortunate.

Sources: Metra, Associated Press  

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