Picture
this. Your on a school bus going to school in the early morning, your bus then gets stopped
by a red light. The railroad crossings suddenly activate at a nearby crossing. But what you
dont realize is part of your bus is on the tracks and the train is barreling down toward
you at nearly 70mph and theres no way it can stop. Sounds like quite the nightmare huh?
Unfortunetly that nightmare was reality for a bunch of high school students in Fox River
Grove Illinois. \pard\sb100\sa100 On October 25th 1995 Metra
Express 624 is departing Crystal Lake Station bound for downtown in Chicago. It departs
at 7am right on time. 624 is often known as the Flyer since it skips most stations at
over 90mph as it heads down the windy city. However the buses at Crystal lake School district
were not having such morning luck. most of the buses were departing the garage on time
at around 6:15am but the driver for school bus 103 running route 47/155 to Carry Grove
High school didn't show up for work. So 54 year old Patricia Catencamp,
a Safety supervisor would have to substitute that day. She had prior experience to bus
driving but she was still rather new to this route. By the time she was ready to leave
the bus was already 20 minutes late. It was a rather cold fall morning so some of the
students still waiting outside had to quote on qoute huddle toghether to keep warm. The
first 2 kids were picked up at the 1st stop at 6:55am and helped guide her through the
route so she knew where to go. By 7:05 the roads were backing up with typical rush hour
traffic but as for 624 it was flying at 60mph with no traffic stopping it. At 7:10 the last
of 39 kids got on the bus so now it was time to get to school. Freshman John Afinsen sat
in the 3rd row after Sophmore Joe Calti who stated that the back was for upper classmen
and the front was for freshies like him. That little move will prove critical later. \par
Seconds later the train and bus's paths had to intersect at the Algonquin road railroad
crossing. They were approaching it around the same time but the bus got there 1st. Catencamp
stopped, looked, and listened but she said she saw no train and proceded across but just
after that a red light stopped her at the other side of the crossing
Behind the bus Jim Hummeluh was stopped behind the bus and noticed a headlight from the approaching
Metra. Suddenly the crossings activate warning of the oncoming Metra. Jim was rather concerned
about where the bus was stopped as he noticed a gate slapped the bus's behind. Then Jim
knew something was wrong, 3 inches of the bus's back hung over the tracks and the flyer
is going full speed toward it. The engineer and students were now facing one of his worst
nightmares possible. The engineer could only slam his emergency brakes, blow his horn,
and pray the bus got out of the way, the kids panicked yelling TRAIN! and telling Catencamp
to get out of the way as was Jim screaming GO GO GO!!!. But no ones prayers were answered. Metra 624 T-bones the bus at over 40mph. The force of the impact shears the whole passenger
compartment off the chassis of the bus spinning it 180 degrees onto the side of the tracks
with the students being thrown around like ragdolls. The police chief who witnessed the
whole scene from the police station down the street from the crossing immedietly called
in as many officers as he could and reqested EMTs to dispatch to the scene. Helen Getchell,
a nurse for the dying ran out of the nearby coffee shop and ironically had to work to
try and save some of the badly injured students. Rescuers worked frantically to free the students
from the mangled wreck of the bus while anxious parents awaited the news of their kids conditions.
5 kids died on impact and 2 died not long after the impact. one of them Jeff clark was
being treated by Helen with a Turkey pastry trying to help him breathe but he died in
her arms, he had just got his driver's liscence. Tiffany Shnider who was Jeff's friend died
too, she just got her first paycheck at her 1st job that would sadly never be checked
in. The sophmore Joe Calti who told the freshman John to sit in the front also died, he had
car trouble that morning and that descision to tell John to move up practically saved
the freshman's life. 21 suffered minor injuries as did Patricica Catencamp the driver. How
could such a nightmare unfold on an average October morning. Was it solely the driver
at fault? The NTSB invesigation found
several factors to the crash. First off the crossing was badly designed. These kinds of
intersections are known as interconnected crossings because of the
need to link the railroad signals to the road signals to ensure safe passage. The crossing
was of inherently dangerous design, in that a long vehicle could be trapped partly on
the crossing while held by a red light at the intersection. If the driver had realized
the danger, she would still have been forced to pull through a red light to clear
the track when the crossings activated Also According to tests conducted by the
NTSB the warning lights on the railroad crossing activated 20 seconds before the arrival of
the Metra train. However, the traffic light clearing the rail intersection only allowed
cars to clear 18 seconds after the railway signals activated, giving vehicles only 2
to 6 seconds to clear the tracks. Roadway signal timing was under the jurisdiction of
the Illionos department of transportation, while railway timing was under the jurisdiction
of Union Pacific. No communication took place between both parties with regards to interconnected
signal timing. It was reported that the crossings had originally
given a safe margin, but had been modified some months previously to allow a pedestrian
crossing cycle, overlooking the possible consequences at the railroad crossing. The traffic signal
would rest in the "WALK" indication for pedestrians during the morning commute period. When a
train is detected, the pedestrian interval must be ended. This process used up 12 seconds
of the warning time as the train approached. Pedestrian volumes at this crosswalk were
extremely light, according to a survey conducted by the Village of Fox River Grove in May 1996.
IDOT traffic engineers responsible for establishing signal timings should have recognized that
in this particular case, resting in "WALK" carries substantial risk and virtually no
benefit, and should not have allowed the traffic signal to rest in the pedestrian "WALK" interval.
If the traffic signals had not been serving the non-existent pedestrian, the bus would
have had a green light 12 seconds earlier than it did, and the collision would almost
certainly have been avoided. \par In addition, the thumbwheel setting on the
crossing processor was reduced to 25 seconds from 30 seconds two weeks before the crash.
Union Pacific officials stated that the new value was still above the minimum constant
warning time of 20 seconds. However that doesn't excuse the driver from
anything. Patricia Catencamp, to properly judge the distance between the railroad tracks and the stop line at the traffic signal across the tracks The failure of the judgment meant that around
3 inches of the back end of the bus hung over the nearest rail. The body of the Metra train
extended 3 feet (1 m) past the rail. All of the injuries were sustained during this initial
impact. NTSB concluded the traffic signal did turn
green 6 seconds before impact, but Catencamp was distracted trying to attend to what she
presumed was some crisis within the bus. In the end bus 103 was scrapped after the
accident and New route designs brought the number of routes crossing railroad tracks
in the District 47 and District 155 school systems down from 70% in 1996 to 10% in 1997 However ever since the accident Patricia Catencamp the driver would never drive a school bus again but she still worked for the school district's transportation division for another five years before retiring in 1999 then movingout of state. She never spoken publicly. Her friends, interviewed after the accident,
said she was devastated. So was the train's engineer, Ford Dotson Jr., who wept during the 1996 NTSB hearing while recalling his inability to stop the train in time.
A large granite memorial and two plaques were placed in memory of the seven students killed
in the crash near the site, honoring the deceased The Fox River Grove Public Library was renamed Fox River Grove Memorial Library
which includes an outdoor memorial seating area with the names of the seven students.
A memorial outside the high school the bus was headed to was added.
23 years have passed and since the accident bus routes don't go over train tracks as often.
So an accident like this never happens again. Captions by Thunderbolt 1000 Siren Productions
