A damn shame...

Hammond man struck, killed by freight train
Friday, October 26, 2007 8:37 AM CDT
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BY LAURI HARVEY KEAGLE
lkeagle@nwitimes.com
219.852.4311

HAMMOND | A freight train struck and killed a Hammond man early Friday morning just two blocks from the site of a September train accident that killed two young girls and their mother.

Randall Roberts, 54, of 2900 163rd Place in Hammond was killed when he was struck by a train around 3:30 a.m. at Torrence Avenue and Hudson Street, according to a spokesman for the Lake County Coroner's office. Roberts died from multiple blunt force trauma in a pedestrian versus train accident, the spokesman said.

The death has been ruled accidental.

Eyewitnesses told investigators on the scene that a van was stranded on the tracks. Some witnesses told investigators Roberts was outside of his vehicle when the train struck him and the van.

The accident snarled traffic in the area for hours, with the train blocking Calumet Avenue just north of Chicago Avenue. As of 8 a.m., all crossings were clear.

The crash occurred just two blocks east of a Sept. 1 crash involving a CSX train and van in which Crystal Bolanos, 11, and Anahi Bolanos, 8, were killed. Their mother, Edie Bolanos, later died in a Chicago hospital as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.

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