LAWYER:
1998, 2001 TRAIN CRASHES ILLUSTRATE "PATTERN OF MISCONDUCT"
(As reported in the Daily Herald 1/14/2001)
By Justin
Kmitch
Daily Herald staff writer
Three
years ago, Hanifa Ajmeri was the passenger in a car that
drove through a railroad crossing; not realizing the gate
had been broken off during a snowstorm that day.
The
vehicle drove into the path of a freight train. The driver
and Ajmeri were thrown from the car.
She
received severe head injuries and a shattered hip, and recently
a jury awarded her a $9.1 million settlement for the March
9, 1998 accident at a Schamle Road crossing in Bloomingdale.
That
accident was only a few miles from a similar accident that
happened Tuesday, January 9th, at a railroad
crossing on Army Trail Road just west of Gary Avenue near
Bloomingdale. Two people were severely injured on Tuesday
when a gate didn’t work.
Those
accidents have more than proximity in common, says the personal
injury lawyer who represents both Ajmeri and the latest
accident victims; they show a "pattern of misconduct
by Illinois Central Railroad."
"If
railroad employees do their jobs, these two totally preventable
crashes don’t happen," attorney Timothy J. Cavanagh
said.
Ajmeri,
45, of Carol Stream, says some of the details of her accident
elude her today. Nonetheless, she says she feels for the
elderly couple injured in Tuesday’s crash, Francisca and
Fidel Velarde of Addison.
"This
was a replica of my accident years ago," Ajmeri said.
"I know what they are going through because I’ve already
been there."
"They’ve
got to stay strong together and take care of one another."
In
the 1998 accident, the Bloomingdale Police Department called
an Illinois Central dispatching supervisor to report the
crossing gate at Schmale Road had snapped off in the snowstorm,
according to the transcripts of the call.
The
supervisor, however, failed to notify the dispatch operator,
so no "stop and flag’ order was placed for the crossing,
Cavanagh said.
In
Tuesday’s accident, a railroad repair crew fixed one of
the two malfunctioning crossings and notified the dispatcher
of the repair.
The
dispatcher, however, lifted "stop and flag" orders
at both crossings, which opened the door to the accident
at Army Trail Road.
Instead
of stopping at the intersection and flagging the traffic,
the train crew proceeded through the crossing at 50 mph.
Canadian
National/Illinois Central spokesman Jack Burke said the
similarities between the two accidents ends at their being
in the same vicinity and their involvement of the dispatch
desk.
He
also said the railroad has taken steps since 1998 to increase
safety at the grade crossings.
"We
now have a hotline number posted at every crossing for people
to call in all crossing difficulties," he said. "Previously,
all calls went to the chief dispatcher. Now they all go
to a separate help desk focused on troubleshooting."
He
said railroad attorneys were studying the latest suit filed
Thursday, January 11th, by Cavanagh.
Lanny
F. Wilson, chairman of the DuPage Railroad Safety Council,
said he hopes the accident will draw attention to the need
for safer crossings. He said he supports two safety upgrades
for all grade-level crossings.
The
first is a four-quadrant crossing, in which the crossing
gates block all lanes of traffic in each direction, rather
than just half of the lanes. The other involves an infrared
sensor that would automatically halt a train more than a
mile from the crossing if gates were malfunctioning.
"This
technology is available and could be financially feasible
if money was pooled together and a serious effort was made,"
Wilson said.
