A 19-year-old man who was critically injured Wednesday night when a Metra train struck a vehicle on Chicago's Southwest Side continues to fight for his life, his family's attorney said.
Surveillance video documenting the moments before the vehicle collided with the train near Pulaski Road and 87th Street shows the train's crossing gate going down on the car's trunk. The driver tries to reverse then drives forward into the path of the oncoming train.
Christopher Davis, a pedestrian waiting to cross the intersection, was hit by the vehicle. He ended up pinned under the train.
In total the crash sent four people to the hospital with critical injuries.
"Cars should not be allowed to be caught between the gate and those tracks," said attorney Ben Crane, who installed a camera to prove the intersection is not safe.
NBC 5 Investigates found that four collision accidents occurred at the 87th Street and Pulaski Road grade crossing, according to Federal Railroad Administration accident reports over the past eight years.
In 2015 two people died when a train traveling westbound on the main track noticed a car attempting to make it over the crossing.
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"This is not a situation where somebody ran through the gate or ran around the gate," Crane said of Wednesday's crash. "They were in a place they are allowed to be, and the train started coming and the gates come down behind them."
A Metra spokesperson told NBC 5 the crash remains under investigation.
"You can’t just put your head in the sand," Crane said. "It’s going to happen again."
Davis remained in intensive care Thursday at Christ Medical Center. NBC 5 was told his condition has not been improving.
