After Pickup Truck Zooms Down The 606 Trail, Logan Square Man Calls For Car Barriers At Entrances

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The 606 Trail is a hotspot for runners and bikers, but last week witnesses say a truck zipped down the popular path, leading to some scary moments.

Turns out, it's not the first time something like this has happened on the trail. In fact, Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st), one of three aldermen whose wards include portions of the trail, said it was the seventh time a car got on the 606 this year.

A Logan Square man told CBS 2's Tim McNicholas more should be done to protect people who use it.

"You could imagine a car barrelling down," Brennan McDowell said.

McDowell said he hopped on his skateboard for a ride on the 606 Thursday night.

"It's decently crowded still at that hour. Kids families people just riding their bikes," he said.

Bus his cruise quickly went off course. McDowell said he had to scurry to the side of the trail to avoid a pickup truck driving 30 to 40 mph as it headed east on the 606. At least two others tweeted that they also saw a truck on the elevated trail.

McDowell said he called the police.

"I proceeded to give chase as best I could, in case anybody down the way had gotten injured, which seemed plausible at the time. I'm frankly amazed that nobody had gotten hurt from this car. Some of these spaces are so narrow that, where could you really go?" he said.

It might be unlike anything McDowell has ever seen on the trail, but it's not the first time it's happened.

Last year, someone posted a video to Reddit of a car on the 606. Back in 2016, an Instragram user posted a photo of a car in the middle of the path.

"I don't think it would take much to put some kind of obstacle just to make this kind of action impossible," McDowell said.

McDowell didn't see where the driver got on or off the trail last week, but there are spots where it's possible.

The west trailhead ramp feeds right into a cul de sac on Ridgeway Avenue.

The east trailhead entrance is also wide enough for vehicles to enter, and it might be possible for cars to get onto some other entrance ramps, with a tight squeeze.

McDowell said the Chicago Park District should install barriers on 606 Trail ramps to keep cars off.

"At the very least the main entrances, anything wide enough to get a car onto this thing, because it seems like something that could be very easily solved, versus what could happen if you don't solve it," he said.

He said it was tough to see because the truck's lights were off, but it looked to him like a dark, beat-up pickup truck.

One that he hopes to never see again.

La Spata said the truck that McDowell saw got on The 606 at Lawndale Avenue and exited at Western Avenue. The alderman said permanent barriers are not an option, because police and Chicago Park District workers need to get on the trail, but he is looking at the possibility of removable bollards.

Chicago Police said they are still looking for the driver of the truck.