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A homeless man was killed early Tuesday after being struck by a freight train near West Chicago and Crystal Streets, police said.
Steven Townsend, 30, was pronounced dead at 2:20 a.m. at Sherman Hospital, police said.
As the southbound train approached the scene about 1:30 a.m., railroad personnel saw a body lying on the tracks, so they began to blow the horn and then applied the emergency brakes, police said.
But the workers were unable to stop the train before it struck the victim, reportedly as he had just sat up, police said. The impact from the train threw the man about 50 feet.
