The victims of a collision between a vehicle and a Metra train in Hometown earlier this month that seriously injured three sisters and left one man dead are suing the commuter rail company and the rail line’s owner in separate suits filed this week.
Sisters Twyla Poe and Passion Ware, who suffered “severe and permanent injuries” in the collision, filed suit against Metra and Norfolk Southern Railway Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court. A third sister in the vehicle with Poe and Ware that night who remains hospitalized will be added as a plaintiff in the suit shortly, their attorney, Sean Murray, said.
The estate of Christopher T. Davis, a 19-year-old pedestrian who was killed when the women’s vehicle spun into him after colliding with the train, filed a separate suit against Metra and Norfolk Southern Wednesday.
The deadly train strike, which happened Feb. 12 at the intersection of West 87th Street and South Pulaski Road, is at least the second fatal collision at the crossing in the past five years.
Poe and Ware’s suit alleges Metra and Norfolk Southern were negligent because they had prior knowledge of collisions and near strikes at the intersection, but failed to warn motorists about the propensity for vehicles to get trapped at the crossing.
“This is a safety issue at this intersection that had been previously identified and should have been corrected,” Murray said Thursday. “If it had been corrected previously, this never would have happened. It’s very unfortunate.”
The sisters’ suit also faults Metra for failing to issue a “Winter Storm Advisory” or restrict train movement on the snowy night of the crash; for failing to train its engineers to approach the Hometown crossing with caution and be on the lookout for trapped vehicles; and for the train engineer’s failure to stop the locomotive upon seeing the vehicle stuck in “no man’s land.”
Surveillance video of the crash obtained by the Daily Southtown shows a safety gate come down on the rear side of the sisters’ 2015 Hyundai as they wait at a stoplight at the intersection.
The vehicle’s driver then backs up in an apparent attempt to extricate herself from the intersection, but finding her vehicle hemmed in by the gate, hits the gas and proceeds into the crossing as a train approaches.
Murray said all three sisters, ages 23, 26 and 28, suffered “catastrophic-type” injuries in the collision that will require significant rehabilitation and have lifelong consequences. Poe and Ware have been discharged from the hospital, but the third sister remains in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, he said.
Murray said it was not clear at this point which of the sisters was driving.
Davis, the teenaged pedestrian who was struck by the sisters’ vehicle and gravely wounded, died of his injuries two days later. His death, which was ruled an accident caused by multiple injuries from a train striking a motor vehicle, is at least the third at that intersection since 2015.
More Top Picks What Is Visual Midline Shift Syndrome
Two cousins from Chicago were killed and four others were injured in a 2015 crash at the crossing that an attorney for those victims said was “virtually identical” to the Feb. 12 collision.
Metra officials have said they were in the process of making design modifications to the Hometown rail crossing at the recommendation of the Illinois Commerce Commission when this month’s deadly strike occurred.
The planned changes, which an ICC analysis recommended in 2017 and should be completed by August, involve moving the safety gates at 87th Street closer to the tracks and angling them parallel with the tracks rather than perpendicular to the roadway, spokeswoman Meg Reile said.
The Illinois Department of Transportation approved funding for the changes last August and design work is ongoing, she said.
In a statement Friday, Metra said it sympathized with the victims, but cast doubt on many of the lawsuits’ claims.
“Accidents at railroad crossings are preventable if drivers and pedestrians obey the road markings and grade crossing protections,” the statement said.
Metra said the 87th Street crossing was in compliance with all state and federal standards, that the warning lights and gates at the crossing had activated as intended and that the train’s engineer had sounded his horn as he approached the intersection.
“The video evidence clearly shows that driver of the car stopped beyond the stop line of the intersection but was still stopped in a place of safety,” Metra said in its statement. “The video evidence further shows that the collision could have been avoided had she stayed put.”
Norfolk Southern declined comment on the pending litigation.
Twitter @ZakKoeske