Autopsy shows heart attack claimed driver hit by train

A Des Plaines man whose taxicab was struck by a train Thursday evening died from a heart attack, not the collision with a commuter train, the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The medical examiner's office investigators determined Friday that 42-year-old Robert Wells III died of natural causes from coronary atherosclerosis, a condition in which arteries become blocked.

Police reported that Wells' cab was struck by a westbound Metra train at Pearson Street and Ellinwood Avenue in downtown Des Plaines after the cab proceeded north on Pearson around the lowered railroad gates.

Wells was not on duty at the time, his roommate Judith Schmitt said.

Schmitt said the initial reports that Wells had intentionally driven around the railroad gates didn't sound like the safe driver she knew.

"I'm sure that's what it looked like to an observer," Schmitt said. "I think he was trying to avoid a car in front of him."

Schmitt said Wells had been a cabdriver for 10 years and she doesn't believe he would have suddenly become so reckless as to ignore a railroad crossing gate.

The impact with the train sent Wells' cab spinning backward onto the sidewalk, police said.

The cab struck 48-year-old pedestrian Ricky Collins of Chicago, who was waiting to cross the tracks.

Officials said Collins was treated for minor injuries and released from Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Wells was pronounced dead at the same hospital at 7:08 p.m. Thursday.

Des Plaines police had no further information from its own investigation Friday and didn't say how the medical examiner's findings fit in with the department's.