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Amtrak called the St. Louis newspaper that day and told the paper the crossing light was working fine. Thing was the crossing didn't have as much as a sign much less a crossing light. UP brought in the dozers and dozed all the sight obstructions out right after removeing the evidence. The reporter "oh i fixed it later" like the initial report wasn't what Amtrak wanted the potential jurors to hear. ----- Original Message ----- From: @post-dispatch.com> To: Sent: Monday, March 24, 2003 12:36 PM Subject: Re: Jury tampering I have a clearer picture as to what happened, now that I have read our > stories in the archives. The day of the crash I quoted the Amtrak official saying the crossing had a > working signal. I did not verify this myself that day because the crash > scene had been cleared up by the time I began reporting the story. > > Erroneous statements by officials are not something we generally correct. > If we were to find something that contradicted or modified an official's > statement -- and we were to see it with our own eyes -- we would generally > report that fact in a subsequent story. That's what I did when I visited to > the Medley's home a few weeks later to write a profile of Stephanie. I > wrote a story June 5, 2000, that said the crossing did NOT have a signal. > > Hope this helps. > > Jeremy Kohler > on 03/22/2003 03:14:59 PM > > To: @post-dispatch.com> > cc: > > Subject: Re: Jury tampering > > > Mr. Kohler, > There was no crossing light "giveing warning" at this crossing as the Amtrak spokesman told you. There was NO sign post, NO cross-bucks, NO stop signs, nothing but brush and trees blocking her view. Since this crossing was across the Medleys driveway it is considered a "private" crossing. So there was NO train whistles neither except maybe a split second before the train blindsided the car since trains aren't required to blow whistles at private crossings. Private crossings do not qualify for Federal and state railroad safety funds so none of the close to 98,000 private crossings in this country have any kind of warning devices like crossing lights. The girl was basically murdered when she was caught in the sight obstructed booby trap with a 70 mph Amtrak being the murder weapon. http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/TA/ProgMgt/Grants/Sight_Eng.pdf This chart gives the proper sight lines at passive crossings (no lights/gates). Since Amtrak pays Union Pacific railroad a usage fee on these tracks it was UPs responsibility to maintain the crossing. They came out right after and dozed out the sight lines and put in stop signs. But with the curves in the track and terrain these signs still aren't safe and the trains need to be slowed down or gates/lights installed. Where our state and FRA railroad safety people are sleeping on the job at I don't know but they should be in jail for negligant homicide. The Medleys have a wrongful death lawsuit against UP and Amtrak for the death of their daughter who WAS NOT killed at a crossing with working crossing lights like was reported. This OBVIOUS lie by Amtrak needs to be corrected publicly by the paper that printed it.
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