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Sep 27, 2007 7:46 pm US/Central
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FBI: Metra Tracks Were 'Sabotaged'
12 Railroad Spikes Found Missing On South Side's Electric Line
CBS 2's Jim Williams and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The FBI believes a case of sabatoge that could have caused a train derailment was averted by alert Metra workers, who discovered a dozen railroad spikes missing in an area on the city's South Side.
The spikes hold down metal plates that bind the rails to wooden ties.
"If a sufficient number of spikes are removed in a contained location, there's the potential for the rail to shift, which would lead to disastrous results and train derailment," said Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Steve Kulm.
Metra employees discovered the missing spikes Monday near 100th Street just south of the Bishop Ford Freeway, and notified police and federal authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, which investigates threats to planes and trains.
Those tracks carry passengers to the south suburbs and northwest Indiana.
The FBI said it was conducting a criminal investigation into "sabotage." FBI spokesman Ross Rice said agents were checking for possible connections to a domestic violence case involving a Metra engineer.
"No one has claimed responsibility or called in a threat," Rice said. "No similar incident has been reported to us in the metropolitan area. This is a serious incident, and we are aggressively investigating."
Investigators believe someone with knowledge of railroads meant to cause enormous harm.
"Due to efforts required to remove these ties, this was a deliberate attempt to possibly cause the train to derail," said Frank Bochte of the FBI.
And that could have endangered the lives of hundreds Metra passengers, but Metra spokesperson Judy Pardonnet says the sabotage was discovered early.
The stretch of tracks on the Metra line had just been inspected on Sunday, and everything was fine. The very next morning, a Metra employee doing routine maintenance work saw evidence of tampering.
"Fortunately we had a keen employee who was able to notice that something didn't look right," Pardonnet said. "He looked closer and it appeared something had happened criminally."
"This happened when there were very few trains on the system and the tracks were inspected and re-inspected before the rush hour," Pardonnet said.
Investigators are trying to determine whether there is any link between the track tampering and gunshots that were fired at two Metra trains on the same line June 6 and June 8.
"We are not ruling anything in or out at this point," Bochte said. "We're going into this investigation with an open mind and go where the leads take us."
Metra was concerned that the June shootings might have targeted a train engineer. She was allegedly being harassed by her estranged husband. Right after the shootings, Metra says it re-assigned the engineer.
She was not at the controls Monday when the track sabotage was discovered.
The affected tracks carry three commuter lines, including the Metra Electric Line to University Park and Blue Island, and the South Shore Line to Michigan City and South Bend, Ind.
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