BY RAY PARSONS
CHICAGO - Seven high school students were killed October 25 when a high speed commuter train crashed into their school bus at a railroad crossing in Fox River Grove, 40 miles northwest of Chicago. More than 25 others were injured.
The bus driver had started over the two Union-Pacific Railroad tracks after checking for oncoming trains. The crossing lights, bells, and gates were off. Less than 50 feet beyond, however, the bus was stopped by a traffic light governing the four lane highway running parallel to the rail line, and the rear of the school bus did not clear the tracks. Seconds later, a seven car Metra express headed for downtown Chicago appeared.
The teenagers in the rear of the bus realized they were going to be hit. Passing motorists yelled for the bus to move clear of the tracks. But the bus driver was waiting for the light to turn green and did not hear the horn of the oncoming train, nor understand the shouts of the students in time. The train engineer threw the brakes in full emergency application, but struck the bus at an estimated 60 mph.
Witnesses ran to help the injured. Helen Getchell, a registered nurse, was buying coffee nearby when she heard and felt the impact. She tended to the most seriously hurt, including a 14-year-old boy who died in her arms.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board found serious flaws in the warning signals at this crossing. The lights and gates are designed to work together with the traffic signal at the nearby intersection so that traffic backed up over the railroad tracks are given a green light as a train approaches and allowed to clear the rail line quickly.
Testing of the system after the crash confirmed that, in some instances, drivers had no more than two seconds to move off the crossing, and that the equipment was inadequate for use with high speed trains.
A similar accident involving a pickup truck had occurred five weeks before. Afterwards, a repairman urged that the timing of the signals be examined, but his warning was ignored. Police officials were investigating more recent complaints about the signal system and were at the crossing when the school bus was hit.
Little regard for life
Officials of the Union Pacific railroad and of the
Illinois Transportation Department have sought to put blame
on one another, asserting that the components of the system
each are responsible for were in working order. "There's no
problem with that signaling from the railroad's point of
view," said UP spokesman Mark Davis.
There are 115 crossings with similar layouts in the Chicago area and as many as 3,000 nationwide. The state of Illinois ranks second, behind Texas, in railroad crossing fatalities. In the last four years, nearly 200 people have been killed when struck by trains at crossings in the state. Half have been in the Chicago area, and in the last two years these casualty rates have been increasing. In 1994 alone, 610 people were killed at rail crossings in the United States and 1,923 were injured.
Chicago is a center of the railroad industry in North America. More than 18 different railroads converge on and criss-cross the city. On top of this is an extensive commuter service run by Metra over the same main track, at speeds up to 69 mph. More than 1,000 street-level crossings exist in the Chicago area.
The October 25 tragedy has put a spotlight on the criminal lack of rail safety that exists in the United States. In this instance, the railroad and state are both to blame for poorly designed and poorly maintained warning equipment.
For many years, "train whistle bans" have been in effect in the city and in 35 towns and villages in surrounding counties. With these prohibitions, commuter trains racing at high speed and freight trains weighing as much as 15,000 tons approach crossings at odds with car traffic and with pedestrians, but do not blow the locomotive's loud horn or whistle. Nearby residents complain of the noise.
But numerous studies have shown that crashes triple at crossings where whistle bans are in effect; the frequency of collisions at crossing where horns are not blown is 84 percent higher than at those where they are sounded. Crossings with whistle bans are equipped with gates and warning lights, but crash rates are still lower where the locomotive sounds the horn. In 1996, however, a new federal law comes into effect, overriding local bans. Most railworkers welcome this.
Rail safety has emerged as a major issue in the media since the bus tragedy. The mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, for example, ordered a review of crossings in the city, and noted, "The rail industry is a huge industry in America, and they have to talk about safety...they have a responsibility to people in the communities." The Democratic Party politician did not, however, voice such concern during the strike by United Transportation Union against the Soo Line Railroad in the summer of 1994, when freight trains operated by management were involved in a number of accidents and nearly crashed into commuter trains on two occasions.
Thousands of crossings around the United States have no warning signals of any kind, especially in the countryside. Others have lights, bells, and gates. We must demand that the railroads and government install more such protection, but also that better systems are needed that give more warning of oncoming trains and more securely close off the crossing. The October 25 collision and many others that have occurred show that current systems are inadequate and unreliable.
The only way to reduce accidents to zero is to eliminate crossings. This is what is immediately posed in hundreds of locations around Chicago and other urban areas. We cannot accept railroad and government assertions that there is no money to build the bridges or tunnels needed. The railroad barons have made record profits.
Railworkers, through our unions, are in the best position to lead the fight for rail crossing safety. We can speak with authority about the horrors that have occurred and what must be done to end them. We can bring union power to bear in forcing our employers and the government to correct these dangers. And as we do this, we will win new support and solidarity from a broad layer of workers for future fights in defense of safety and jobs.
Ray Parsons is a member of United Transportation Union Local 620 and is a switchman at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, in Cicero, Illinois.