Man dies after Metra train strikes vehicle near Lake Barrington

A 78-year-old man died more than a week after a Metra train struck a vehicle near northwest suburban Lake Barrington.

Outbound Union Pacific Northwest train No. 653 struck the 2009 Cadillac CTS about 7:45 p.m. Sept. 27 near U.S. 14 and Kelsey Road as it headed west toward the Fox River Grove station, according to Metra and Sgt. Christopher Covelli of the Lake County sheriff’s office.

The vehicle was about 100 yards southeast of the Kelsey Road crossing “in an area a car wouldn’t ordinarily be,” Covelli said.

The driver, 78-year-old James A. Wagner of Barrington, either got out of the car just before it was struck or as it was struck by the train, according to Covelli and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Wagner was taken to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, where he died 10 days later at 11:18 p.m. Saturday, according to the medical examiner’s office. An autopsy Monday found he died of multiple blunt force traumatic injuries, and his death was ruled an accident.

The Lake County sheriff’s Technical Crash Investigations Unit was investigating.