PARENTS
SUE RAILROAD
(As reported in Daily Herald)
By Stacy
St. Clair
Staff Writer
April 11, 2001
A
railroad company knew its train crossing in Aurora was dangerous
and could have prevented an accident that killed two DuPage
County teenagers, recently filed court papers allege.
The
documents surfaced earlier this week in relation to the
collision that killed Krishna Bharadwaj of Naperville and
Arvin Rao of Westmont. Today marks the second anniversary
of the teens' death in that crash.
Bharadwaj
and Rao, both 16, had spent most of April 11, 1999, hopping
from library to library to research a science project. The
boys were headed east on Ogden Avenue in Aurora when a freight
train on the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad clipped
the back of Bharadwaj's Toyota Camry.
The
train's whistle blew several times and the warning lights
and bells also were working, according to police reports.
The car, however, maintained its speed as it approached
the tracks.
The
Camry entered the crossing easily. There were no gates to
prevent its admission.
That,
according to a lawsuit filed by Rao's parents, is where
the railroad failed the boys.
Documents
filed in the case show the railroad company had been instructed
to install gates as early as 1997 but had not done so.
In
a May 7, 1997, letter to the company, the Illinois Department
of Transportation requested the gates because of visibility
problems at the crossing. The railroad responded with a
$155,000 plan to install the gates during the next fiscal
year, when federal funds would be available.
Three
months later, a company engineer scribbled an addendum saying
the money had not yet become available.
"Need
federal approval," EJ& E engineer Dennis R. Ojard
wrote on the memo. "Have not applied yet. Expect to
do next month...unlikely now to get in before April 1999."
The
Raos' lawyers says the company's inability to install the
gates before April 1999 resulted in the teenagers' deaths.
"There's
no doubt the railroad had a visibility problem," said
Timothy Cavanagh, the family's attorney. "Had they
corrected it, the deaths would not have occurred."
Railroad
spokesman James P. Bobich would not comment. Gates have
since been installed at the crossing.
State
officials first learned about the visibility problems in
April 1997 when Naperville resident Florence Dowdy filed
a complaint with the Illinois Commerce Commission. Dowdy,
a mother of Waubonsie Valley High School students, worried
about children - teenage drivers, in particular - passing
through the ungated crossing on the way to school each day.
Two
weeks after she registered her grievance, the commission
sent her a letter saying the crossing had restricted visibility.
As a result, the letter says, gates would be installed.
"I
just felt it was very unsafe," Dowdy said. "I
thought with all the children going to Waubonsie, something
should be done. I did the best I could do."
Arvin
Rao's parents, Mani and Murali, also have become advocates
for improved railroad crossings. The family, which emigrated
from India in 1998, questions why all crossing don't have
gates as they do in their native country.
"They
don't understand why a country like ours does not live up
to obligations to protect people," Cavanagh said.
The
Raos' lawsuit seeks an undisclosed amount in damages. A
trial date has not been set.
Suit:
Railroad claimed it didn't have funds for gates
