RAILROAD
DISPATCHER BLAMED IN SUV CRASH
(As reported in the Chicago Tribune 6/5/2001)
By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Free-lance reporter Gabrielle
Infusino contributed to this report.
Nearly five months after a freight train struck a sport-utility
vehicle at a Bloomingdale-area rail crossing, injuring three
members of a DuPage County family, railroad officials have
filed a report with federal authorities blaming a company
dispatcher for the wreck.
Safety
signals at the crossing had been partially disabled before
the January collision on the Canadian National Illinois
Central rail line because melting snow had caused the gates
on Army Trail Road to malfunction.
Under
federal guidelines, the 89-car freight train involved in
the crash should have inched up to the crossing to make
sure the equipment was working. Instead, it barreled through
at 50 m.p.h.
The
ensuing wreck seriously injured a 38-year-old Carol Stream
woman and her elderly parents who were in the SUV.
A
copy of the railroad's final report on the incident, obtained
by the Tribune, shows that Canadian National Illinois Central
has blamed one of its dispatchers for erroneously lifting
a "stop and flag" order at the crossing.
Such
an order calls for trains to approach a troubled crossing
slowly to ensure that safety equipment works properly. If
the crossing gate does not activate, crew members are supposed
to get off the train and flag down traffic.
"The
train dispatcher mistakenly notified the crew of (the train)
that the `stop and flag' order for the highway-rail grade
crossing at Army Trail Road had been nullified," the railroad
reported to the Federal Railroad Administration, or FRA.
Robert
Haas, the dispatcher working in the railroad's Homewood
communications facility, and the train's two-man crew have
been fired from the railroad. Canadian National Illinois
Central spokesman Jack Burke verified that the railroad
had filed the document with the FRA, but declined to comment
on the material.
Burke
said the report has not changed the railroad's posture in
defending itself from a pair of lawsuits filed in the wake
of the wreck, both alleging the railroad was negligent.
The railroad will make its case in court, he said.
"That
is the correct forum where this will be discussed and argued
and ruled upon," Burke said.
The
FRA has not issued its own final findings on the crash.
Chicago
attorney Timothy Cavanagh, who is representing the injured
elderly couple in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages,
said he received a copy of the railroad's report late last
month.
The
attorney made available last week a videotape of a deposition
Haas gave at Cavanagh's law offices in April. In the interview,
Haas testified that he was confused by repair work that
had been completed at a nearby crossing.
Haas
said he gave out incorrect information to the crew.
