EARLY COMMUTE TURNS DEADLY

A South Shore Railroad commuter train was cruising past a seamless row of steel mills near Portage, Ind., Thursday when a jolting sight cut the early-morning darkness: a tractor-trailer straddling the tracks ahead.

Left with little warning, engineer Bill Sims and conductor Tom Lawson hit the emergency brake and scrambled down the aisle of the two-car train’s first compartment, pushing passengers along the way.

Then the impact. A 20-ton steel coil the size of a small car snapped its rigging, lurched off the trailer and smashed through the first 15 rows of seats–killing three passengers and injuring five others. A railroad worker also was injured.

“It ripped through like paper, knocking down seats like dominoes,” said Portage Fire Chief George Nickos.

Sparks flew around the train as it screeched to a halt. “There was no warning at all that it was going to happen. Upon impact, all the lights just went out.” added John Madden, 40, of Valparaiso, Ind., a passenger who suffered minor cuts and bruises. “The impact of the crash was tremendous.”

The dead were identified as Gary G. Berndt, 53, of Baroda, Mich.; William J. McCombs, 57, of LaPorte, Ind.; and Glenn Walker, 38, of Michigan City, Ind., a railroad employee riding the train to work in Gary.

As 14 investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began sifting through the wreckage, one of the biggest unanswered questions was whether the truck driver, Keith James Lintz of Niles, Mich., drove around a dropped crossing gate and pulled onto the tracks.

Lintz, who was not seriously injured, told investigators that he drove across one set of tracks and approached a second, parallel track about 4:30 a.m. But before he got there, he said, another gate dropped to let a freight train pass. As he waited, the gate behind him dropped, trapping him on the tracks, he told police.

But John Parsons, spokesman for the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, owners of the South Shore, pointed out that both sets of gates are supposed to lower simultaneously.

“We don’t know if this (first) gate was down and he went around it,” Parsons said. “He had quite a bit of his truck hanging off.”

The crossing, just outside the entrance to a Midwest Steel plant, is marked by a large orange sign warning drivers not to block the tracks. All signals and gates appeared to be in working order, authorities said Thursday.

Indiana records show that before Thursday there were two accidents at the South Shore crossing where the crash occurred. One was in 1985, the other in 1990, and neither involved fatalities or injuries.

Investigators were looking into the mechanical timing of the gates and crossing lights; Lintz’s cargo; and the possibility of human error by Lintz and the commuter train’s engineer, Sims, 33, a 12-year veteran of the railroad.

Lintz was cited for allegedly driving a load that was 70,000 pounds overweight, being 28 days behind in his log book and failing to properly secure his load, authorities said.

Parsons said investigators speculate the train was traveling about 45 m.p.h., though some passengers estimated it was traveling as fast as 70 m.p.h.

Michael Martino, lead investigator for the NTSB, said investigators were examining how tightly the steel coil was secured on the trailer.

The NTSB’s investigation will take about nine months to complete, officials said.

Though investigators said that darkness may have contributed to the crash, the early hour may have prevented more deaths: About 20 people were on board.

“We’d certainly be looking at many more deaths if this were later in the morning,” said Capt. T.J. Chavez of the Portage Fire Department.

According to police, the number of fatalities also would have been higher if not for the quick action of Lawson, who in the seconds before the impact, ran back into the passenger car and yelled at passengers to move back.

“He’s a real hero,” said Portage Assistant Fire Chief Tim Sosby.

“This is operating personnel’s most dreaded nightmare, but it would be characteristic of Lawson to go above and beyond,” Parsons added.

Lawson, 41, is a 20-year veteran from Valparaiso.

Madden was headed to his job as a maintenance engineer in downtown Chicago. Despite the crash, most passengers were subdued, he said.

“There was no yelling or screaming. People were pretty calm,” Madden said.

After the crash, dozens of rescue workers sidestepped downed electrical wires and twisted steel, cutting a hole in the top of the train to remove the bodies, an arduous process that took nearly five hours.

“Because of the coil, we couldn’t access the bodies,” Sosby said. “We just couldn’t get to them.”

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Six victims were treated and released from two Indiana hospitals.

Two were treated and released from St. Mary’s Medical Center in Gary, and four were treated and released from Porter Memorial Hospital in Valparaiso, representatives for each hospital said. All six had minor injuries.

The released victims from Porter were Salwa Agemy, 27, of Michigan City; Mark Vaselica, 31, of Valparaiso; John Verde, 39, of Valparaiso; and Jackie Siegel, 64, of Michigan City. All were released by 10 a.m. Thursday. Siegel is a South Shore Railroad employee who was walking the site and stepped in a hole, injuring her foot.

The collision shut down train service coming into Chicago. Commuters were taken to the Hegewisch station and then bused to 115th Street and Kensington Avenue, where they rode the Metra train downtown to the Randolph Street Station.

Lintz was hauling the coil for Top Line Express Inc., based in Lima, Ohio.

In recent weeks, the Ohio state agency that regulates the trucking industry in that state audited Top Line and found serious violations of trucking regulations as well as minor bookkeeping problems, an Ohio state official said.

The audit was prompted by a driver for the company who had filed a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s Transportation Department. The complaint alleged that the company forced drivers to make runs that violated federal regulations on how long drivers can be behind the wheel.

“They (the violations) are serious enough, we put together a series of recommendations,” said Steven Lesser, an assistant director of the Transportation Department. “The driver fatigue factor issue is a very major issue.”

According to the Michigan secretary of state’s office, Lintz has received four speeding tickets in the last six years, including one on Jan. 5 for going 66 m.p.h. in a 55 m.p.h. zone in Cassopolis, Mich., while towing a trailer with a gross vehicle weight over 10,000 pounds.

“This driving record speaks for itself,” said Elizabeth Boyd, spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office.

“Clearly, this driver had more points on his record than the majority of Michigan drivers.

“But the record is void of any of the factors that would indicate egregious activity.”