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From Thursday, Nov. 24 CHICAGO TRIBUNE (abridged): <br /> <br /><b>"TRAIN PLOWS INTO CARS</b> <br />Rush-hour Metra crash hurts 16 in Elmwood Park <br /> <br />"A Metra express train slammed ino five cars trapped in rush-hour traffic at an Elmwood Park crossing Wednesday night, causing a thunderous chain reaction that tore apart vehicles and left 16 people injured, three critically. <br /> <br />"Witnesses heard a deafening metallic screech as the train pushed one car for nearly a block. That car burst into flames, and nearby motorists pulled the driver to safety. <br /> <br />. . . <br /> <br />"Residents and Elmwood Park officials said the crossing on Grand Avenue has long been problematic, with motorists routinely trying to squeeze across the tracks as the gates are coming down. <br /> <br />"The train crosses four-lane Grand Avenue at an angle, making the crowssing unusually long. Signs above the crossing warn motorists: 'Long Crossing. Do Not Stop on Tracks.' <br /> <br />. . . <br /> <br />"'People violate the gates constantly,' said Elmwood Park Fire Chief Michael Marino. 'I see cars, kids on bikes, motocycles, ladies with shopping bags going under the gates when a train is coming.' " <br /> <br />. . . <br /> <br />Note from A.S.: The local Channel 7 (ABC) Eyewitness News at Six said Thursday evening that the gates and signals had functioned properly and that the train engineer had put the train into emergency braking as soon as he saw the traffic gridlocked ahead. At least some of the cars had ignored the red light ahead of them and squeezed past lowering crossing gates. <br /> <br />In my opinion, this was a situation of collective idiocy coming to a head. It was the busiest traffic day of the year, the roads were jammed, it was around 5:00 p.m., just after dark here and the height of rush hour anyway. None of this excuses the fact that commuters along Grand Avenue had long made a habit of entering a crossing they shouldn't. Apparently motorists had taken a life-threatening situation and treated it as a mere inconvenience, forgetting what a train can do to a stopped car. The angle of crossing is so shallow that the intersection runs about 100 feet instead of the more normal fifty that would occur at a right-angled, multi-track crossing. This allowed the maximum number of eastbound cars to gridlock the intersection. While the amount of destruction to vehicles was truly breath-taking, it is a miracle that more people weren't badly hurt or even killed. The train was a normally scheduled, Antioch line Metra train on a line that runs west from Chicago, turns to the north near the O'Hare airport stop, and continues to the north along old Soo trackage. Nothing about its center-track, limited-stop run was in any way unusual. <br /> <br />WHEN WILL THEY LEARN? <br />[xx(] <br /> <br />PS: You can read the verbatim account by logging onto chicagotribune.com, but you will have to sign into the system and leave your e-mail address. <br /> <br />
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