Word just came across the WGN9 news that a Metra Train hit and killed a teen at Fox River Grove,Ill. They said that the teens playing on the Tracks. Allan.
Boy Killed By Metra Train In Fox River Grove### Death Especially Painful For Community On Anniversary Of Accident On Same TracksCBS) FOX RIVER GROVE, Ill. A teen was hit Wednesday by a Metra train and killed in Fox River Grove.
The tragedy comes on the eleventh anniversary of a deadly Metra collision with a school bus at that same crossing.
It appears the 15-year-old was riding a bike across the Union Pacific Metra tracks at Route 14 and Algonquin Road, when he was struck and killed by the train.
CBS 2 North Suburban Bureau Chief Katie McCall reports that this is especially painful for the boy’s community, because of the date.
It is the same day and the same intersection where 11 years ago seven Cary Grove High School students were struck and killed. Their bus became stuck in traffic on the same tracks.
One woman said she was confused when she saw the flashing lights and thought there was a memorial.
At 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, Fox River Grove police got a call that a 15-year-old had been hit by a train while crossing the Metra tracks on his bicycle at Algonquin Road and Route 14.
The victim is identified as Justin Glassmyer, a sophomore also from Cary Grove High School.
“We have no reason to think that the crossing equipment functioned anywhere out of the ordinary, and that is all we have,” said Fox River Police Chief Robert Polston.
Residents were already thinking about the anniversary of the other accident tonight and this tragedy has hit them hard.
"Now Fox River Grove is going to have to go through the same thing
I live two blocks from this location. I didn’t live there when the original accident happenedin '95 but I know quite a lot about it and my soon-to-be brother-in-laws( one who was going to that high school and one who was on duty for the towing company that responded) and mother-in-law (a surgery nurse at the nearest hospital) all have firsthand dealings with the events. My mother-in-law, who is also good friends with the chief of police incidently, even offered assistance last night. It is definitely a difficult event for this community especially given the fact it happened on the anniversary of the bus crash. My thoughts and prayers are with the family.
All things aside, I hate to admit I don’t find this as unbelievable as many. Certainly it is a tradgedy but I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen people, both pedestrians and motorists, push their luck with the train traffic in the area. The cause of last night’s accident hasn’t been determined but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was trying to beat the train. Just last year another friend of our family had a loved one killed by a commuter train in Cary. He’d missed his stop and was walking back toward his house on the tracks. He was on his cell phone and aparently never heard the train coming. What more can we do to warn people about the dangers of trains? And will people really listen anyway?
Deeply saddened,
Mike
A lot of people out there simply ignore the inherant dangers involved at railroad crossings where a train can and should be expected to show up without any warning. The BNSF has a spur line which runs past one of our local hospitals, and it has been my observation that so many, many hospital employees will cross that track on the way to the parking lot without even looking in both directions. While this is a spur line that doesn’t get a lot of traffic from the BNSF switch crew, the same principles would apply here. I too, often wonder how long it is going to take, or how many people lose their lives before people finally wake up and start paying some attention to the dangers involved with trains.
About a year ago I was out photographing some cars on a BNSF siding in my neighborhood, and this siding is tied in with the yard here in Sioux Falls. The BNSF had coupled a locomotive or two to the one end of the train that was out of my line of sight, and I could hear the entire brake line throughout the train being charged with compressed air. I watched two idiots come walking off the bike trail, and they were adults, and rather than wait for the train to clear the crossing, they crawled underneath a covered hopper. I warned them not to do this and they would not listen to me. It was hardly a minute later when that train started moving. I yelled at them, “You damn, stupid kids are lucky to be alive!!!”
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
“There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run, when the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun, long before the white man and long before the wheel, when the green, dark forest was too silent to be real.” Gordon Lightfoot
I watched two idiots come walking off the bike trail, and they were adults, and rather than wait for the train to clear the crossing, they crawled underneath a covered hopper. I warned them not to do this and they would not listen to me. It was hardly a minute later when that train started moving. I yelled at them, “You damn, stupid kids are lucky to be alive!!!”
I also have seen this happen at the BNSF Eola yard here in Aurora, IL, where people (especially on weekends) are in a damn hurry to get to the auto salvage parts yard on the north side of the main and they will from time to time cross over or under cars on switching moves, potentially right into the path of mainline freights, Amtrak or Metra trains.
As I have said many times before…STUPID DOES AS STUPID IS!
When my wife and I saw the story on the television news last night, we agreed that Metra was not at fault in this situation. It was probably a case of a teenager trying to beat the train. That age group has always had a mentality that included invincibility, immortality and “it can’t happen to me”, and unfortunately there isn’t too much that can be done about it.
What ever happend to “Stop…Look…Listen”? You dont see those signs anymore…
After an incident (look, it wasnt an accident…we know what caused it!) like this, everyone wonders “How could this happen?”
Locally, a 14 yr old was killed here when he rode his bicycle into traffic in the dark, without stopping. A witness saw it. The driver wasnt cited. But everyone everybody want to know “:How can that happen?”
The local high school is downtown. Just sit and watch how much respect the kids have for the traffic…none! And everyone wonders why they get hit by cars…
But no one wants to take responsibility for NOT TRAINING/TEACHING them properly.
I do feel for the familys involved in both incidents. These “Tragedies” did not have to happen. But they will keep happening untill people wake up to the real cause, and do something about it.
We are held accountable for our actions, eventually. Some, like these young people, more quickly than others. [:(]
I agree with the above statement that no one wants to take responsibility for NOT TRAINING/TEACHING them properly. I also think that a lot of people these days have chosen to abdicate responsibility for their own actions and their own safety. I know that Metra is not at fault, and yet someone is likely to point the finger at them as if it WAS their fault.
When I was in elementary school, and this was more than 40 years ago, there was a police officer known to us kids as “Officer Fisher” and he would come to our school to make presentations on safety, whether it be crossing the street or crossing a railroad track. And he always placed a lot of emphasis on “STOP, LOOK & LISTEN”. I sometimes wonder if any of the police departments across this county still do in-school programs like this.
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
“There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run, when the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun, long before the white man and long before the wheel, when the green, dark forest was too silent to be real.” Gordon Lightfoot
I always hated it when adults talked like this when I was a kid, and I swore I wouldn’t be like them when I got older… You know, the old “What’s with these young kids today” attitude… But it IS true. I don’t know what’s happening with kids, but most of them seem to have blatant disregard for everything and everybody now days. When I drive by Jr. High or High Schools when the kids are getting out, it’s almost like they think it’s funny to basically walk around in the streets and cause as much grid lock as possible… Doesn’t matter if the light is red, yellow, whatever… They’ll just walk right out in front of cars that are coming right at them. Half of them look like they’re in some kind of walking coma or something… Someone just posted another thread about two 18 year old kids that got half electrocuted while climbing on the roof of a train car that was under overhead lines. They claimed they didn’t know that would happen? I remember when I was a little kid and realizing the third rail and overhead lines could hurt you. I’m assuming somebody taught me that. Maybe we should slack off on the the geometry and other stuff most kids will never use, and teach them how basic things in life work a little more.
Dave
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