Metra tragedy

[eolafan]

Unfortunately for a third time in about a month a young teen was killed by a UP West Line Metra train in Villa Park, IL yesterday while taking a short cut to her school (she was reportedly running late according to her grandfather). When are people going to learn to stay away from the tracks and stop playing chicken with trains...you will ALWAYS lose![V]

[dknelson]

You gotta feel sorry for the crews when this happens -- anyone who has ever had a cab ride even at slow speed knows just how slow a train is to react -- and unlike a freight train the Metra crew has to remember that it has a train full of passengers to protect and care for as well.
When I railfan Chicago I always see something hair raising in the way of behavior trackside. Familiarity breeds contempt I guess.
Dave Nelson

[zardoz]

Ever since I started running suburban trains in Chicago, I was amazed that the trains would go as fast as they do through such densly populated areas. There are so many near-misses (cars and pedestrians) daily that I am actually surprised that more accidents do not occur. Especially when you consider how many trains run (usually hourly; more during ru***imes) in both directions, on numerous routes, at up to 70mph.

[Anonymous]

When I first saw the thread I said to myself, "Oh no, not another one." I was hoping that it was just an old thread brought back to life. No such luck. How sad it is that this continues to happen.

WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN? [?] [?] [?]

I am always saddened to hear of the loss of life, especially the life of a child. [V]

[Anonymous]

[:(]they need a electric fence some small jolt that will just make you stop and maybe change your mind about walkin the rails


allthough i cant complain much i my self walk the rails some times but only old side tracks not main lines but they should put a fence in place and more
cops around residential neighborhood RRXINGS maybe that will lower
the count give stiffer fines fine the juveniles to dont be so easy cause their kids their the ones getting killed[xx(]

[Anonymous]

Only a note from Germany.

In spring 2002 start the testruns at the newbuild 300 km/h line between Cologne and Frankfurt.
Nothing has happen, but dont ask the number of people that walk through the tunnels when the trains made the runs.
The RR warned with sign, announcements in newspapers etc. It was a hard time for the railpolice!!!

At Sundays they stoped complete families!!

[CShaveRR]

At least this time we're not having the discussion about the crew's rule violations.

One hates to sound callous, but kids at that school are warned regularly about trespassing, but the problem persists, to the point that the fence has a hole in it within days of the school district's repairing it. News reports indicate that this girl had been cautioned by friends against crossing the tracks there. The "shortcut" is close enough to the appropriate grade crossing that she should have heard the bell, if nothing else.

Metra's now going to come out with an ad campaign warning against the dangers of trespassing on railroad property.

One wonders: would the media coverage have been different if it had been a UP freight that nailed her?

[rrnut282]

Yes, it would prbably be more negative toward the RR. Because there were passengers who vicariously share the blame, the media backs down a little. The fact that this is a repeat also weighs in subconsciously that it just might not be the RR's fault

[BaltACD]

Railroads get painted with the Wrong Colored Brush when it comes to striking tresspassers. In urban areas, those areas have grown up surrounding and subsequent to the construction of the rail line. Federal, State and Local govenrments over the years have been granted easments over private railroad property for the construction of highways, roads and walkways....in retrospect, it has been a mistake for the railroads to have granted these easments. Secondly governmental bodies that have impinged upon the railroads private property they want the railroads to bear the expense of protecting themselves against the public that the governmental bodies don't desire to spend the money to protect the governments citizens from theirselves.

While any deaths are regrettable, the real culprits are the Federal, State and Local governments that don't want to spend the money to provide rail grade spearation for both motorists and pedestrians.

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BaltACD


While any deaths are regrettable, the real culprits are the Federal, State and Local governments that don't want to spend the money to provide rail grade separation for both motorists and pedestrians.

And the people who won't use them when they do exist.

QUOTE:
Originally posted by CShaveRR

One hates to sound callous, but kids at that school are warned regularly about trespassing, but the problem persists, to the point that the fence has a hole in it within days of the school district's repairing it. News reports indicate that this girl had been cautioned by friends against crossing the tracks there. The "shortcut" is close enough to the appropriate grade crossing that she should have heard the bell, if nothing else.

No doubt you can chalk this one up at least in part to good old teenage invincibility.

[Anonymous]

Not Again

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:
While any deaths are regrettable, the real culprits are the Federal, State and Local governments that don't want to spend the money to provide rail grade separation for both motorists and pedestrians.

Build all the overpasses and crosswalks you want, spend billions people are still going to die.

Wanna bet?

On the main road through town which I travel at least 12 times a week going to and from my house, there was one area where a new condominium was built. People were always J-Walking across the street from this new condo building to go across to the mall.


All the drivers complained about all the J-Walkers, and the situation was getting a little dangerous, so the city spent over a hundred thousand to put in a pedestrian controlled crosswalk, with the built in flashing lights, and night lights and everything.... all the bells and whistles.

Sure enough, the sidewalk is installed, and people are still J-Walking, instead of walking a quarter of a block to the cross walk, people just cross wherever they feel like it and hope everything works out.

One instance in particular it was winter and I was driving down that street, and some old man is J-Walking, and he actually ended up running and slipping right in front of my car.... Luckily because I am aware of the street and the situation I was going at a speed where I could stop and not kill the guy.

>> The other thing that gets me is the people that DO use the cross walk, but don't bother pushing the button to get the lights flashing --- how hard is that????


Install all the crosswalks you want, the human instinct is still going to be to take all the short cuts possible, getting the most out of the least work. -- Face it we're lazy.

[Kozzie]

I agree with you macguy! We can lessen the chances by installing barriers etc, but it still comes down to people's atitudes.

We had a case of a young kid riding a bicycle across a railway bridge on an inter-urban line from Brisbane to the Gold Coast. The 6 car EMU travelling at 100 km per hour (60 mph) had no chance of stopping in time. Result: 1dead child and 1 train driver that has to cope with it, along with the kids family etc etc...
[:(]

[Anonymous]

[sigh]I just can't believe that this continues to happen. Well, I understand when its been a couple years and people forget, but 3 in one month? I use to live in Naperville and also Lake Forest. I use to watch herds of kids at Brookfield Zoo and at Ravina step off the train and then TURN, and cut BEHIND THE TRAIN and CROSS THE TRACKS! There is NO SAFE WAY to cross double or triple tracks directly behind or infront of a stopped train!
This isn't just a lifetime nightmare for the family or the engineer, but any passengers who witnessed it!
I had the unfortunate chance to see an incident in Hinsdale. I was sitting in the front car on the upper level when someone who was late for work or something cut in front of our parked train. She didn't have a chance to see the EXPRESS that was passing on the center track! I still have dreams 10 years later.
I like the electric fence idea, but I think you would have to do the shocking dog collar/primeter fence combo thing. While we are at it, lets fence the highways and all the lakes and ponds and rivers in our praks as well.

[northwesterner]

How about this? I am walking in Lincoln Park (Chicago) and
I see a woman with two small kids trying to cross Lake Shore Drive about four blocks North of Belmont Avenue (where ther'es an underpass), which means she is four blocks South of Addison (where there's an underpass)!
Speed limit is 45mph, six lanes wide, and there is at a minimum a guard rail on both sides, possibly a fence on the west side. Darwin award candidate? I think so.

[eolafan]

HOLY COW, here's yet another example of sheer stupidity. Today on the Chicago radio station I listen to in the morning I hear about a lady in her car who drove around the lowered crossing gates only to get stuck on the tracks (double track) with another train coming in the opposite direction. Some wonderful fellow jumped from his auto and pulled this dingbat out of her car and dragged her to safety moments before the freight hit her car. Now, with METRA placing tons of print ads in the Chicago media lately in an effort to stop folks from walking on the tracks and getting injured or killed, I offer you all this question..."If somebody is so stupid to walk down a busy mainline track, what makes METRA believe they are smart enough to read the newspaper rather than listen to Howard Stern or some other idiot who cater to the brain-dead people today". Hats off to METRA for trying, but those who read these ads are not the ones who METRA needs to reach anyway. Now I will climb down off of my soap box!

[wallyworld]

When I interviewed local candidates for a position in maintenance, I would tell the local manager that I could tutor anyone to bring up their skill level but I can't teach them common sense. I used to live in a subdivision that had no sidewalks. Now I live in one that does. At every right angle turn, there are paths cut across the greenery creating a shortcut. The pace of life seems to increase more every year. I applaud the railroads for the thankless task of trying to save lives.

[jeaton]

CHICAGO (AP) Police in Des Plaines carry two-by-fours in their squad cars to prop up malfunctioning gates at railroad crossings in Chicago's northwest suburbs.

Officers say several times a week dozens of gates come down and stay down even though there's no train in sight.

In communities such as Des Plaines, La Grange, Palatine, Winfield and Chicago, where malfunctions routinely occur, officials call the scenario hazardous and a chronic public nuisance. But railroad industry spokesmen say the gates are simply warning that the system isn't working properly.

Officials say when gates fail down, the responsibility for public safety falls to local law enforcement.

But communities say they can't continue policing the gates. Des Plaines officials have decided to submit a written claim to the railroads each time a crossing gate malfunctions.



I give up.

Jay

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN? [?] [?] [?] [V]

The sad thing is people will never learn

[pmsteamman]

Having hit several vechicles in the 6 yrs I've been on the right side thank God only one has resulted in death. When aproaching a grade crossing the gates go down, I blow the horn, and the race begins. All you can do is hope they make it.

[Mookie]

The old engineer used to tell me that he would travel the great plains and watch cars that would parallel the tracks, going down the highway at a great speed. He would tell his fireman to watch the car, cuz they were going to try to beat the train to the crossing. He was never wrong. Sometimes the driver of the car was......

[Anonymous]

I commute on METRA (UP Northwest Line), and I think that it has an excellent safety record, given the number of people that use it every day. I see hundreds of people getting off the train at busy stations such as Barrington or Arlington Heights, and running in every direction to get to a bus, a ride, or their own parked cars, and I am always amazed that more people don't get hurt or killed. People do not think. Yesterday, I noticed that trains were slowing and not entering stations where an opposite-direction train was standing or departing, and I think that this is a good practice, although it may play havoc with the timetable. In any event, it should help save lives where people are departing a train, and running around its end to get to the other side of the tracks.

[zardoz]

The CNW had a timetable rule that prohibited a train from entering a station if another train was occupying said station. In the morning eastbound trains had priority at a station, and in the evening (after 1200) westbound trains had rights. It even got more interesting in the triple-track areas (Barrington to Chicago). Most trains on the center track were "express" trains that the "locals" had to lay back for, even the one's going in the same direction. This even applied to freight trains. Quite a sensation on an express zipping through a crowded platform full of people waiting to board the local that was due to stop two minutes after your passage. All the commuters scrambling acrosss the tracks, thinking the express was the local they were waiting for........

Not too difficult to do nowadays with radios on all trains, but in the "good old days" we would communicate with sequenced flashes of the headlight.

When running a freight train in suburban territory (before radios), an engineer had to be able to time the passage of his train through a station before or after a passenger train was due. Quite a feat sometimes, considering that the stations are sometimes only a mile or two apart (a real pain in the tush, actually).

[CShaveRR]

Jim, those rules are still there, in UP's special instructions book. It looks to me like every possible occurrence is pretty well covered. I know from scanner talk that freights and opposing scoots are always inquiring about the location of the scoot when they get close to the schedule time for meeting it, so they can comply with all of the rules.

I worked a scoot assignment only once. In those days, the scoots were on a different channel from the freights, and we were constantly being told by the dispatcher to "switch to Channel 1 and let no. ___ know where you are." Having everyone on the same channel is a definite improvement in this case.

And Jim...congratulations on the third star!

[zardoz]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR


And Jim...congratulations on the third star!

Wow! I didn't notice. Thanks.[:D]

[jgiblin]

Something else is missing from these discussions and it is the almost total lack of enforcement activities by many of the suburban police departments. It's relatively easy to get ticket for driving 5 miles over the speed limit in most of these towns but people rarely, if ever, get tickets for walking or driving around crossing gates or trespassing on railroad property. It is simply more financially lucrative for these police departments to spend their time writing traffic tickets than policing grade crossings. Police departments have an obligation to enforce ALL the laws not just the ones they prefer to enforce.

[Anonymous]

I heared today (3/25/04) that a Metra train hit and killed someone.

[eolafan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CenTexRRFan

I heared today (3/25/04) that a Metra train hit and killed someone.

Yep, sure did, he was a 49 year old Mexican imigrant taking a short cut across the tracks of the UP West Line (CNW) to go to work at a printing plant. Yet another example of ignorance of consequences (or was it sheet stupidity) costing somebody his own life (not to mention the mental anguish of the Metra engineer).

[CShaveRR]

Correction: It was the MILW west line, near Itasca, according to a news report quoted on the UTU web site. Both victim and engineer's visibility was obscured by a curve in the tracks, and noise may have been muffled by air traffic from O'Hare.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan

QUOTE: Originally posted by CenTexRRFan

I heared today (3/25/04) that a Metra train hit and killed someone.

Yep, sure did, he was a 49 year old Mexican imigrant taking a short cut across the tracks of the UP West Line (CNW) to go to work at a printing plant. Yet another example of ignorance of consequences (or was it sheet stupidity) costing somebody his own life (not to mention the mental anguish of the Metra engineer).

I just can't see how you can't hear or see a train comming down the tracks