High and Low in Chicago

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Here’s the high (from BLE site):

Woman gets new scooter; rescuer gets award
(The following article by Brett McNeil was posted on the Chicago Tribune website on March 4.)

CHICAGO – A 65-year-old woman whose motorized scooter was crushed by an Amtrak train Tuesday only seconds after a stranger pulled her from the tracks has received a new set of wheels, and the man who rushed to help her will be honored by Downers Grove police as a lifesaver.

“I was worried. What was I going to do without my scooter?” said Rosetta Wiedemann, who suffers from diabetes and is unable to walk long distances.

After learning about her rescue from news reports, officials from Broadview-based health-care company DependiCare gave Wiedemann a new champagne-colored scooter worth $3,500 Wednesday.

“This one’s a Cadillac; the other one was a Chevy,” Wiedemann said Wednesday as she test-drove the machine at her home in a Downers Grove senior citizens building.

Wiedemann said she relied on her scooter for many years to run errands in downtown Downers Grove. In fact, she was going for a loaf of bread about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when she got stuck on the tracks at a railroad crossing along Main Street.

A front wheel got caught moments before the crossing gates went down to let the train through. Two days out of Los Angeles, Amtrak’s Southwest Chief was traveling at speeds up to 70 m.p.h. as it headed for Chicago’s Union Station with about 163 people onboard.

With the train closing in, Thomas Rutecki, 55, of Lockport, rushed to help. Unable to free the scooter, he spirited Wiedemann off the tracks just before the train slammed into it.

Downers Grove police on Wednesday announced they will honor Rutecki, who regularly catches a train to work from the Main Street station, with a departmental lifesaving award. The commendation will be presented at a March 25 ceremony.

Despite a flood of attention, including calls from te

2

How very sad that a young boy lost his life in this accident. [V]

I “feel” for his family and friends. [:(]

And you know the student engineer feels bad too.

What a bad lesson to learn and so early in his career.

3

It’s like I have always said, people should not have to cross open rails. A bridge or a tunnel would have prevented this horrible accident.

4

I was quite suprised that people WERE still crossing open rails. It suprised me that there are stations where people are crossing rails, that could very well be operating “express through” trains at any time. I realize that there are procedures to try and make this practice safe, but as seen in the story above these accidents will happen unless you completely take away the opportunity for it to happen (pedestrian bridges or tunnels or what have you).

In the lower mainland we have the SkyTrain and at no one time in any of the stations are passengers required to cross over the rails on a level basis. Of course when the SkyTrain was built in the '80s this was likely a give-in, and not up for debate.

Surely money is the only factor in up-grading these station, therefore it all comes down to the old argument of “What price can you put on a human life?”

5

Chicagoland is basically flat prairie land. When the RR’s came the main use of the land was farming. No need existed for bridge or tunnels. However, with the spread of people to the suburbs, this has become a big problem.

The first time I road the now BNSF West line, I was surprised at the number of grade crossings. To eliminate them ,a bundle of money which I don’t know where it would come from, would be needed.

6

I was surprise the lady got a free scooter but for the low they should fire the Enginners and expanded the traning program to 12 months

7

I know this is a railroad site but we all live on a fisical planet, but if everyone could watch themselves from speeding to walking/driving in front of a train/auto to falling off a cliff and drowning and everything in between … I’m niether a fireman nor terrorist and I may or may NOT play hero, pal (or lady).