WASHINGTON — Federal safety officials are considering whether a truck driver police said was tired or non-working crossing gates contributed to a fatal collision between an Amtrak train and a tractor-trailer in Illinois two years ago, a wire service reports.
The crash 50 miles south of Chicago killed 11 people. The Bourbonnais, Ill., accident also injured 122 and caused an estimated $14.3 million in damage.
The National Transportation Safety Board was holding a hearing Tuesday on the March 15, 1999, collision. It occurred when Amtrak’s City of New Orleans — the train immortalized by songwriter Steve Goodman — smashed into a tractor-trailer truck loaded with steel at a grade crossing.
An Illinois State Police investigation found that the railroad crossing gates were not working correctly at the time of the accident, but that the driver, John R. Stokes, drove past flashing red lights at the crossing.
During the NTSB hearings, witnesses differed on whether the crossing gate struck the trailer as Stokes drove his truck across the tracks. Stokes told authorities after the crash that he didn’t see the train approaching, and claimed the bells, lights and gates started after he began crossing the tracks.
The Illinois police report also found that Stokes was “physically impaired by extreme sleep deprivation or fatigue.” Federal rules require an eight-hour break after 10 hours of driving, but Stokes reportedly had a much shorter rest.
Stokes’ license to drive a truck was suspended for two months after the accident because of traffic citations issued before the crash, but has since been restored.