Metra Train Collides With Van, Killing Woman and Injuring 2 Children

Updated, 10:35 a.m.

A van was hit by a Metra train Monday morning killing a woman and sending two children to the hospital. 

The accident took place at 115th and Marshfield on the Rock Island tracks. 

The driver of the vehicle was found dead at the scene and a bystander pulled two children out of the van, according to the Chicago Fire Department. The van had rolled over during the collision.   

The two children have been taken to Advocate Christ Hospital. 

Metra police and investigators are on the scene of the accident determining exactly what transpired. 

Leonard Gardy saw everything. 

He was turning out of a shopping center and onto 115th Street when the gates began to come down. 

Gardy says the gates were down when a vehicle came from behind him and drove around the gates. The train hit almost immediately, he said. 

"I am still playing it back in my head," Gardy said. "I've seen demolition derbies before but you never think you would see a car get hit like that."

He says that Metra police and emergency vehicles responded to the crash extremely fast. 

The smashed vehicle has been cleared to the side of the tracks. 

Updated 10 p.m. 

Tristian Williams , 26, has been identified as the woman killed in this morning's collision. 

Her sons Jayvon, 4,  and JonKing, 5, were both hospitalized. Williams was on her way to drop her sons off at school when the accident occurred, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The paper spoke with Williams' husband Bill who waved goodbye to his family as the headed out this morning:

"I told them I loved them. 'Have a good day at school,' like I do every morning, and 'I'll see you later,' " Williams said.