About 4:31 a m. on June 18, 1998, a westbound Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District two-car passenger train struck the second semitrailer of a long combination vehicle consisting of a tractor pulling two flatbed semitrailers loaded with steel coils at a highway-rail grade crossing near Portage, Indiana. When the vehicles collided, the second semitrailer broke away and was dragged by the train, while a chain securing a steel coil to the second semitrailer broke. The released coil entered the train's lead car through the front bulkhead and moved into the passenger compartment. Three fatalities and five minor injuries resulted.