By Adrienne Fawcett
The survivor of Friday night's pedestrian-train accident near Conway Road told Metra police she saw a train approaching but thought it was farther away. She also said she and her companion tried to get out of the way of the train, but that the next thing she remembers is waking up on the ground near the tracks.
According to the Metra police report, the engineer on Amtrak's Hiawatha train #339 observed two people walking "northbound on 2 main" shortly after the train passed the Conway Road railroad crossing. Metra Spokeswoman Meg Reile said the engineer told police one of the people was walking between the rails and the other was walking outside of the rails. He stated that he put the train into emergency braking, he saw the two people trying to get away from the train, and he thought both had cleared the rails but not the width of the locomotive, although he did not see or hear an impact. (A train's width extends about three feet from the rails on both sides.) He also said he called authorities immediately after applying the brakes.
The sun set at 5:13 p.m. last Friday, Feb. 5, so it was already dark at 5:48 p.m. when train #339 struck and killed Lake Forest Academy senior Ju Young "Chris" Lee. He was 18 and a four-year boarding student from South Korea. The other LFA student, also from South Korea, was injured and taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville; she had arm surgery and is expected to survive.
"This is a horrible tragedy and we feel deeply for the families, but it so clearly demonstrates why train tracks should not be used as a short cut to anywhere," said Ms. Reile. She and several sources said the students were using the tracks as a path to get home to the Academy from the shops behind Metra's Telegraph Road depot.
It's worth noting that the Amtrak was not on the track it usually travels on between Chicago and Milwaukee.
The tracks in question are on the west side of Lake Forest. There are two tracks, and they're used by Metra, Amtrak and freight trains. The students were walking north on the track bed that usually is used by trains traveling south to Chicago.
But at 5:48 on Friday night, Amtrak's Hiawatha #339 was traveling north on that track. It had "crossed over" in Deerfield or Morton Grove, per dispatcher instructions, to bypass the northbound commuter trains that make frequent stops along the line and slow down express trains. The #339 train was to "cross back over" at Rondout Tower near Route 176. Cross overs, also known as run arounds, are commonplace, sources said.
"Cross-over moves happen quite often, particularly on this line that's shared by Metra, Amtrak and freight trains," said Chip Pew, railroad safety specialist with the Illinois Commerce Commission and coordinator of the state's Operation Lifesaver railroad advocacy and education group. "This is why we tell people that trains can be on any track at any time in either direction."
He added: "The students may have heard the train, and probably knew it would be close but thought it was on the other track. By the time it came upon them and they realized it was on the track they were walking on, it was too late."
It's likely this all took place in a matter of seconds, at most. "At 55 miles per hour the train is traveling something like 80 feet a second, so in less than four seconds they're eating up track that's equivalent to a football field," he said. "So at 70 miles per hour (the Amtrak's speed), the train's eating up even more track even more quickly."
Mr. Pew said that once an engineer applies the brakes on a train traveling 70 miles per hour, it takes a mile to stop--if not more. The accident occurred one quarter of a mile north of the Conway crossing.
Canadian Pacific spokesman Jeff Johnson said trains "cross over" numerous times every day, but he did not have specific data regarding how often trains on this line cross over between Morton Grove and Rondout (Canadian Pacific is the dispatcher for all of the trains on this line). "We stress that trains can run on either track in either direction--they are not direction specific," he said.
This is why Metra doesn't use the words "northbound" or "southbound" to designate its tracks, said Ms. Reile. And besides, she said, "It's virtually impossible for the human eye to tell which track a train is on through the distance."
The representatives from Metra, Amtrak, Canadian Pacific and the Illinois Commerce Commission all emphasized that the students were trespassing on private property, as the tracks are owned by Metra up to Rondout. Canadian Pacific owns the tracks after Rondout.
"Please stay off the tracks," said Mr. Johnson, Canadian Pacific's spokesman. "They are private property. Please adhere to warning signals, train whistles, lights, gates, bells. They are there for your protection."
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