Bicyclist dies after touching 3rd rail at Blue Line stop in Chicago

CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - A bicyclist died Friday after making contact with the electrified third rail at a Blue Line L station on the West Side, according to police.

The man was on a bike on the platform of the Illinois Medical District when he went off the platform and touched the rail, Chicago police said. The circumstances of the incident were still unclear.

Officers were called at 9:10 p.m. and found 30-year-old German Catalan-Cortez on the tracks, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Blue Line trains were standing at the station for more than an hour before trains began to bypass the station, the Chicago Transit Authority said. By 11:30 p.m., the body had been covered and moved to a vestibule area.

An autopsy released Saturday ruled Cortez’s death an accident by electrocution, the medical examiner’s office said. He lived in west suburban LaGrange Park.

Catalan-Cortez is survived by his two brothers, mother, and a 5-year-old girl, his brother wrote on Facebook.

Area Central detectives were conducting a death investigation.