On the first day of spring, Shea Hickey returned to the railroad crossing in Bourbonnais where 11 lives were lost and hers was forever changed.
The 19-year-old Elmhurst College student, who rode on the City of New Orleans train three cars behind those that burst into flames Monday, had come to retrieve her baggage.
She was not injured when the Amtrak train hit the trailer of a steel-hauling truck in the crossing and more than 200 people were forced from the rail cars by smoke, flames and the threat of explosion.
Hickey tried to return to her studies after the accident, but by midweek her friends had to drive her back to her home in Downstate Marion.
“Every time I closed my eyes, I saw a train,” she said.
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On Saturday, Hickey got most of her luggage back but came away from the scene with much more.
“What I feel now probably is just pain for the people who died because at the time they told us everyone was OK,” she said. “But I think I always knew deep down.”
While the crash site teemed with gawkers, investigators, neighbors and a few survivors Saturday, little new information was released. Meanwhile, the town of Bourbonnais prepared for memorial services Sunday.
Bourbonnais and Illinois State Police pulled some of the undamaged train cars up to the crossing with a new locomotive, then hung a mangled truck tire–believed to be from the truck driven by John Stokes of Manteno–above marks on the street. They said the maneuvers were part of their investigation but would not elaborate.
Surveying the scene Saturday, Hickey recalled the series of little dramas that played out immediately after the collision.
A conductor had ordered all the passengers to sit down. But then they saw the flash of flames coming from the cars ahead.
“OK, we gotta get off,” she remembered saying.
Climbing from the train, she stepped into the mud and could hear crackling from the fire. She saw a man carrying a child, calling out for his wife. She passed other victims being pulled from the flames.
“All of what had happened really hadn’t sunk in,” she said.
The Sunday morning services are meant to acknowledge the help many of the local residents have given, not only to the people left injured and stranded by the crash, but also to the hundreds of people given the thankless task of cleaning up.
“They didn’t save their religion for Sunday morning, they were being Christ’s hands through the week,” said Rev. Bob Anderson of the College Church of the Nazarene. “A situation like this always brings up the very simple question of `Why?’ Where is God in all this? Why couldn’t God stop this kind of thing?
“God cried the first tear.”
Federal authorities from the National Transportation Safety Board were preparing to leave the scene Saturday, but local officials will continue to look into the accident.
Stokes, 58, is not charged with any crime, though a criminal investigation is under way, said Kankakee County State’s Atty. Michael Kick.
Stokes, who was driving on a probationary license at the time of the crash, has a lengthy history of driving violations in Indiana and Illinois.
Illinois secretary of state records dating back to 1966 show Stokes has been cited or warned at least 27 times, including two tickets for driving on a suspended license; four license suspensions before his current one; and nine accidents involving either property damage or injury.
At the time of the accident, Stokes’ license had been suspended for three moving violations in Indiana within a year. He was issued the probationary license after he took a driver safety class.
But suspensions might have been imposed in two earlier instances.
He was stopped for speeding in March 1996 near Champaign, but got a warning ticket. Had it been an official ticket, his license would have been suspended because of an earlier speeding violation and another in August 1996.
In February 1998 Stokes pleaded guilty to driving 62 m.p.h. in a 55 m.p.h. zone near Kankakee. During that traffic stop it also was found that his left brake was out of adjustment, a left tire was worn and he had unsecured cargo on his trailer. He took a safety course and received court supervision in Illinois. Violations resulting in court supervision are not reported to the Illinois secretary of state. Had they been, a suspension could have been triggered.
In addition to moving violations, Stokes was arrested in February 1997 for driving a truck on which one axle was nearly 4,400 pounds overweight. He posted a $514 bond, the equivalent of the fine he faced. When he failed to appear in Cook County Circuit Court, he was found guilty and his bond forfeited.
State officials have pledged to study a reform of Illinois’ system in the wake of the Bourbonnais tragedy.
Despite Stokes’ record, a neighbor came forward to defend him Saturday.
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“He’s also a victim,” said Rich Litynski of Manteno. “He’s in a walking coma. He just stares at TV and keeps flipping the channels.”
Litynski also stood by Stokes’ driving abilities, saying he proved to be a conscientious motorist on a recent trip they took together, cursing at those who did not come to a complete halt at stop signs and red lights.