(The following story by Dan Rozek and Mary Wisniewski appearedo n the Chicago Sun-Times website on March 18, 2010.)
CHICAGO — A chilling video that shows an 18-month-old girl and her godmother getting hit and killed by a commuter train at a North Chicago crossing was released by Metra to highlight the danger of crossing the tracks when a train is approaching, a Metra spokeswoman said Wednesday.
And the husband of the woman killed by the express train said he doesn’t object to the release the tape, which was shot from the front cab of the train.
Though still devastated by the deaths, Gonzalo Alvarran Flores said he hopes the images might help prevent other deaths or injuries at pedestrian rail crossings.
“It’s OK. Maybe people won’t cross when the lights are on,” Gonzalo Alvarran Flores of North Chicago said in Spanish through an interpreter.
The family was hurrying to catch a Chicago-bound commuter train Saturday and thought the approaching train was going to stop at the North Chicago station — even though the warning lights and bells at the crossing were operating. But the commuter train was a fast-moving express train that took them by surprise, he said.
“We thought the train that was coming was going to stop at that station, but it didn’t,” he said softly, pausing to brush away tears.
He and the couple’s teenage daughter crossed just ahead of Blanca Villanueva-Sanchez, 34, who was carrying young Maria Cruz.
Flores is still struggling to come to terms with their deaths, saying simply: “I have a lot of things on my mind.”
But he believes Metra should take an additional step and install safety gates at the station crossing.
“If they put those up, there won’t be another tragedy,” he said.
The video shows the others crossing in front of the train and Villanueva-Sanchez — with the child — behind them. The footage does not show the impact, but the two disappear from the high-angle shot.
“Seeing this video is very bone-chilling,” Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said. “It’s very startling, but it also reminds us that there are only a few seconds to get across the track when the train is coming. It’s literally a matter of life and death, sadly.”
Pardonnet said Metra employees see these kind of scenarios “every single day.”
“People are in a hurry, running across the tracks because they don’t want to miss their train, driving around the gates. Every day we see people taking risks and taking chances,” Pardonnet said.
The engineer on Saturday had applied the brake when he saw the people running, Pardonnet said. But it takes the length of five football fields to stop an express train.
Pardonnet said about 20 people are killed by Metra trains every year, including suicides.