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Son Asks For Witnesses To Come Forward After Mother's Car Hit By Train

(CBS) -- The son of a woman injured after her car was hit by a Metra train Tuesday morning in Itasca is asking for witnesses to come forward after someone told him her car may have been bumped toward the track.

Jim Vitale says his mother, Patricia is in intensive care.

"She's doing as well as she could for anybody who's been hit by a train pretty much head on," he said.

Her car slid into the train's path and the question that lingers for Jim Vitale is, "what happened back at 60, 80, 100, 120 feet short of the intersection?"

The collision was caught on video, but only shows from the angle of the train. Jim Vitale says one witness claimed his mom's car may have been bumped from behind by another, which he thinks could be, what sent her sliding on to the track.

"If somebody nudged her back here and caused her foot to fall off the break or something, that could certainly explain that," said Vitale.

"With the extreme damage to the vehicle, it's pretty amazing that anybody survived, to look at that car," said Chief James Burke of the Itasca Fire Protection District.

Vitale asked that anyone who saw it to come forward and make an anonymous call to police.

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