Loyola senior dies after fall onto Red Line tracks near school
STM Wire September 15, 2012 10:36AM
Updated: September 15, 2012 12:22PM
A 21-year-old Loyola University senior died early Saturday after falling onto the electrified third rail of the CTA Red Line at the station near the school’s Rogers Park campus.
John Versnel, 21, of the 6500 block of North Lakewood Avenue, was pronounced dead at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston at 1:29 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Minutes earlier, he fell onto the tracks at the Loyola Red Line station, in the 1200 block of West Loyola Avenue, police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.
Police said he’d been drinking with friends earlier when he exited a train at the station, bumped into a pillar on the platform and stumbled onto the electrified third rail.
Versnel was not hit by a train, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said. The incident halted trains for about an hour, requiring riders to take a bus shuttle between the Addison and Howard stations.
Trains resumed normal service about 2:30 a.m., Steele said.
Versnel was a Loyola University senior, according to a statement from the school. The school has informed students of the counseling services available to them, as well.
Area North detectives are investigating the death.
