For the third time in a month, a Metra commuter train struck and killed a youth walking on railroad tracks Wednesday, prompting the agency to embark on a media campaign to improve safety awareness while pushing for increased help from police and school officials.
Alyssa Gonzalez, 13, a 7th grader from Villa Park, was struck just after 8:30 a.m. as she walked to Jefferson Middle School, which is next to the tracks, officials said. The incident occurred on the Union Pacific West line near Ardmore Avenue in Villa Park on the snowy, foggy morning.
A DuPage County coroner’s office worker pronounced the girl dead at the scene at 9:27 a.m. Officials said she apparently was going to use a hole in a chain-link fence that divides school property from the train tracks.
Referring to three deadly accidents and one suicide this year involving children 16 or younger, Metra spokeswoman Judith Pardonnet said, “There has been nothing like this in the history of Metra, nothing even close.”
The girl lived in an apartment a few blocks from school. Her grandfather, David Gonzalez, 62, of North Chicago, said she was running late.
“She was trying to go to school on time,” he said. “Maybe she took a shortcut.”
Alyssa’s parents were teenagers when she was born, Gonzalez said, so he had raised her in North Chicago until last fall, when she moved to Villa Park with her mother.
“She was our grandkid, and we loved her like our daughter,” he said.
Alyssa’s aunt, Nancy Gonzalez, 25, of Schaumburg, said the girl loved basketball and hip-hop music. Because they were close in age, they could talk about anything, she said. “She was my world,” Nancy Gonzalez said. “I wanted everything for her.”
The train, No. 38, had left Geneva for downtown Chicago at 8:05 a.m. and was due in Villa Park’s Ardmore station at 8:37 a.m. The accident occurred as the train came around the curve, according to Metra spokeswoman Pardonnet. The 34-year-old engineer sounded his horn and put his train into emergency braking but was unable to stop in time, she said.
The incident, and the mechanical breakdown of a following train, delayed nearly 2,200 commuters by up to three hours, according to Metra.
Fence had been repaired
Villa Park is responsible for upkeep of the fence that divides the middle school from the commuter tracks, according to Villa Park School District 45 Supt. William Schewe. The hole in the fence had been repaired as recently as two to three weeks ago, he said.
Metra has installed fencing in some locations to improve safety, but the commuter railroad generally requires local governments or other entities to pay the cost, in part because Metra officials think the barriers do little good.
“On our system, any time there is a fence, people still cut holes or jump over it,” Pardonnet said. Because the school is next to the tracks, 6th graders at Jefferson receive a unit of instruction about train safety, including where and when to cross the tracks, Schewe said.
“It was a tragedy what happened,” Schewe said. “We prepare kids for the future. Hers got snuffed out way too early.”
Deaths involving pedestrians trespassing on railroad property–more than 500 a year across the nation–surpass the number of people killed in vehicles that attempt to cross railroad tracks when a train is coming, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Thirty-two trespasser deaths were reported in 2002 in Illinois, the FRA said.
The first of Metra’s recent pedestrian fatalities occurred Feb. 23, when a 10-year-old boy was struck and killed by an express Metra train at the River Grove Station as he was crossing the tracks to meet his father.
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On March 11, a 14-year-old girl wearing headphones was struck and killed by a Metra train while on her way to school on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
Ad campaign ordered
As a result of the recent accidents, Metra on Wednesday ordered the biggest education-safety blitz in its 20 years of operation.
Metra plans to run full-page newspaper ads as early as this weekend asking parents to talk to children about safe behavior around trains and to tell authorities if they see children on or near tracks. Also, paid messages on TV and radio, as well as public service announcements, are expected to air next week, Metra officials said.
“The announcements will send out the message once again to the people that railroading is dangerous,” said Metra Executive Director Philip Pagano. “You have to keep your eyes and ears open, and we are trying to do the best we can.”
In addition, Metra is contacting every police chief in the six-county region to seek help monitoring areas where pedestrians habitually walk on railroad tracks or near the right of way.
“We are also encouraging every police chief, if they see a child on or near the tracks, to remove the child and contact their parents immediately,” said Pardonnet. “We are asking for a local buy-in to this plan.”
Although punishing violators is not the goal, Pardonnet said state law allows police to issue $500 fines to trespassers on tracks when a train is coming.
Area school superintendents will receive letters from Metra along with a video, “Be Safe, Be Smart,” intended for elementary and junior high school students, Pardonnet said. Metra is repeating its offer to send conductors to talk to students about rail safety, she said.