On the third day of the probe into a deadly collision between an Amtrak Superliner and a truck, experts were trying to reconcile physical evidence found at the scene that seemed at odds with a statement by a surprise eyewitness.
In an initial interview with federal investigators Thursday, the witness to Monday night’s crash near Bourbonnais corroborated a statement given after the accident by truck driver John R. Stokes that the crossing gates were up and warning lights were off when the steel-hauling rig rolled onto the tracks, according to an official with the National Transportation Safety Board.
But the official cautioned that investigators are trying to reconcile the witness’ account with physical evidence that suggests Stokes might have zig-zagged around lowered crossing gates in an effort to beat the train traveling 79 m.p.h.
A preliminary damage report on the lead locomotive has shown that the truck was at a skewed angle at impact. Authorities also said that the tip of one of the gates was sheared off and they are studying tire impressions left in mud at the scene–possible evidence of the truck’s direction that investigators say could show Stokes veered around the barriers.
The confusion, the official said on condition of anonymity, may result in part from difficulty in understanding the witness, a Hispanic man who provided testimony in Spanish through an Illinois State Police interpreter. Officials need to analyze his statement, and they still do not know exactly when the crossing lights activated and the gates fell in the seconds preceding the crash that killed 11 passengers on Amtrak’s City of New Orleans.
During a re-enactment of the accident Wednesday night, investigators drove Stokes’ truck, attached to a rig nearly identical to the flatbed he was hauling Monday night, around lowered warning gates without striking the barriers.
Whatever the cause of the accident, and despite the fact that officials had not released the names of the 11 people who died, people in Bourbonnais carried on with the mourning process Thursday night. About 75 people gathered for a memorial service at Grace Community United Methodist Church.
Meanwhile, the witness to the crash said he “saw a pair of legs on the other side of the train,” which the witness interpreted to mean the truck driver jumped out of his cab seconds before the catastrophic collision.
The witness, a Chicago restaurant worker, told investigators during an interview at a Bradley hotel that although he heard the train’s whistle, the speed of the Superliner prevented him from seeing the locomotive until it struck the truck.
The unidentified witness, who said another car carrying two women was between his vehicle and the truck, also provided “useful and pertinent” details of the accident that were not previously disclosed to the public, officials said. Although all three witnesses left the gruesome accident scene and did not report their presence to police, the witness from Chicago called Amtrak in Washington on Wednesday night, said Amtrak spokesman Donovan Pepper.
Safety board member John Goglia described the witness as “very credible.”
The news that there were two other witnesses to the wreck prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to issue a statement imploring anyone with information to come forward immediately.
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Officials said the restaurant worker, who ended up on McKnight Road near Bourbonnais after becoming lost while looking for a car dealership, had difficulty communicating what he saw. The witness, who spoke what one official called “broken English,” was interviewed in Spanish by two NTSB investigators, an Amtrak official and the police interpreter.
Amtrak’s chairman, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, said Tuesday that the engineer had contended that Stokes tried to weave his tractor-trailer through the crossing gates after they had come down.
The engineer remained hospitalized Thursday and was on heavy doses of medication, preventing officials from interviewing him. Doctors said the engineer, whose recall is affected by the medication, may not be able to be questioned for two weeks.
“Since what we need from him is not critical to where we are at this point, we can let him take some time to heal before we talk to him,” Goglia said.
Stokes, 58, who drove for Melco Transfers Inc. of Manteno, told police the warning lights activated and caution bells sounded only after he was on the tracks. Stokes, who was driving on a probationary license, also told officials he had almost cleared the grade crossing when the gates came down.
Investigators said Stokes, who expressed “deep sympathy” for the victims and their families, also indicated that any future statements would be made through an attorney he hired Wednesday. He has not commented publicly.
A urine sample taken from Stokes after the accident was tested and came back negative for alcohol and drugs, officials said Thursday. They are still awaiting blood test results.
Authorities also said Thursday that they have concluded their testing of the flashing warning lights and gates at the rail crossing and determined there are “no indications of a signal malfunction,” Goglia said.
The specific type of warning lights and bells at the Bourbonnais crossing are activated 26 seconds before a train enters the crossing, according to an NTSB expert on railroad signals. The gates begin lowering 4 seconds later and take about 4 seconds to fully deploy, leaving 18 seconds before the train enters the crossing.
Investigators said they also were looking into whether Stokes’ truck, which was hauling steel bars from the nearby Birmingham Steel Corp., was overweight or exceeded nighttime restrictions on oversize vehicles. They said, however, that such violations would only represent contributing factors to the accident.
Citing Wednesday night’s “sight-distance re-enactment of the accident, Goglia on Thursday said Stokes should have been able to see the oncoming train when it was 644 feet away from impact. In the test, an investigator in the locomotive saw the truck from a distance of 410 feet. It was unclear what those figures suggested about the cause of the accident.
Also Thursday, Illinois Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown said the state was studying whether to close a number of railroad grade crossings to improve safety and to upgrade other crossings with high-tech sensing devices along the proposed high-speed rail corridor between Chicago and St. Louis.
The Bourbonnais accident on Thursday prompted a U.S. Senate committee to schedule hearings next week on grade-crossing safety. The hearing was called for by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican whose state leads the nation–followed closely by Illinois–in the number of grade-crossing accidents.
Late Thursday, about 75 people–including victims’ family members, community officials and members of the rescue effort– gathered at the Grace Community United Methodist Church to mourn the 11 people killed in the crash.
After reading several passages from the Bible, Rev. Stanley J. Haxton, told the group that accidents remind us we don’t know what the future holds.
“There are no warranties on human life,” he said. “(But) we are one in hope.
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God. We are coming together this evening to pay attention to the fact that our lives have been disrupted. This evening we are one, we are one in grief. Who has not been touched by this tragedy?”