The Metra train had hit 70 m.p.h. when it slammed into six cars trapped on a crossing in Elmwood Park, a thunderous collision witnesses said was like watching an action movie, with hurtling cars and debris.
No one died, but seven people received minor to serious injuries during the chain-reaction pileup the day before Thanksgiving nearly three years ago, authorities said.
On Tuesday, federal safety officials cited the complex design of the Grand Avenue rail crossing, which they labeled “inherently unsafe,” and heavy preholiday traffic as causes of the 2005 collision.
But despite prodding from the National Transportation Safety Board chairman, the board voted 3-2 against blaming the state for failing to build an overpass to solve the problem.
The only way to ensure safety at the crossing, which is used by 107 trains and almost 21,000 vehicles a day, is to construct a grade separation, a project that could cost up to $100 million, the NTSB recommended at a hearing in Washington.
Despite 45 accidents and seven fatalities at the crossing since 1956, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Commerce Commission have managed to conduct only a preliminary study of the project, NTSB officials said.
NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker and Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt tried to prod fellow board members to lay blame on the state for failing to do more. But they could not muster enough support to blame the state in the board’s finding of probable cause.
NTSB investigators said state and local officials have tried during the years to bolster safety at the large and complicated grade crossing with sign and signal improvements. But Rosenker said these changes failed to prevent vehicles from being trapped inside the crossing gates, which occurred on the day of the crash.
“What is needed is a permanent solution to prevent future accidents between trains and automobiles at this highly congested intersection” he said.
The NTSB finding did not blame motorists who ventured onto the tracks immediately before the Antioch-bound Metra North Central Service train bore down on them. The Metra engineer applied emergency brakes, but the train was unable to stop.
Three of the approximately 400 train passengers reported minor injuries, according to the NTSB.
The impact destroyed six vehicles and damaged 12 others, officials said. The locomotive did not derail.
Elmwood Park Village President Peter Silvestri said the NTSB’s finding that the crossing is poorly designed was no surprise. He said that so far no money has been allocated for an underpass, and that IDOT has not included it on its list of projects.
“Was the state negligent? I don’t know,” Silvestri said. “But the bottom line is, it’s time to correct the situation.”
The tracks cross four-lane Grand Avenue diagonally, creating a long crossing that is 366 feet wide. Residents and Elmwood Park officials said the crossing long has been problematic, with motorists routinely trying to squeeze across the tracks as the gates are coming down.
At the hearing, Rosenker pointed to a photo of a school bus that got caught in the crossing in 2007.
“To see that school bus caught between the gates, [it was a] potentially catastrophic situation,” Rosenker said. “We were lucky, but you cannot operate on luck only. Maybe our luck will run out someday.”
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rwronski@tribune.com
