Two girls from Pleasantdale Elementary School died Wednesday morning after an Amtrak train struck a car at the Wolf Road crossing in Western Springs, leaving an adult woman seriously injured and the vehicle engulfed in flames. The crash happened about 8 a.m., and the train passengers were not hurt.
That is why the search for Amtrak news in Western Springs turned grim so quickly on Thursday. Parents, neighbors and school staff were trying to absorb the loss of two children whose names have not been publicly released, while counselors and crisis staff were made available in La Grange and social workers stood by at Western Springs Village Hall for anyone who witnessed the wreck.
Dave Palzet said the girls had been in the school since kindergarten, a detail that gave the loss a painful immediacy for the Pleasantdale School community. He also said there is no playbook for fully responding to a tragedy like this, and the district’s response showed how far the shock spread beyond the crossing itself.
Witnesses said the crossing gates were working normally when the woman drove past them and the train hit the car. Good Samaritans then used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames and help her escape, a fast intervention that likely prevented the scene from becoming even worse. The woman was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
The fracture in the cleanest account of the crash is the one that remains unanswered: why the driver went past the gates. That question matters because it sits at the center of what witnesses described and what investigators still have to sort through, even as the community begins the slower work of mourning. A makeshift memorial was set up outside the train station in downtown Western Springs near the crash site, with candles and flowers left in honor of the victims, while Metra service was affected Wednesday and BNSF trains were running on schedule Thursday.
Heidi Rudolph said the tragedy happened in the heart of the village, in front of many area residents who will carry what they witnessed for a long time. Her remarks matched what was visible on Thursday: a community still gathering around the crossing, but with the central fact already settled. Two children were killed. The next answer people will want is not whether the town felt the blow, but what officials conclude about how the crash happened at all.
