(The following column by mark Brown appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times website on February 12.)
CHICAGO — I’ve got to admit there’s a part of me that’s always wondered what it would be like to jump from a moving train, preferably a very slow moving train.
I mean, they always make it look so easy in the movies. All the top secret agents have done it at one time or another, not to mention plenty of comedians. They either jump or get pushed from trains going at high speed, yet somehow none of them are still even limping by the end of the film.
Lucky for me, though, whatever curiosity I may have about such recklessness is well buried beneath layers of common sense, fear and the admonitions of a railroader father that you NEVER get on or off a moving train — this from a man who had once fallen off the TOP of a boxcar.
Not so apparently for Mark May and Robert Stuart, the two guys who for reasons still unknown decided to disembark Saturday morning from a moving Metra train after it had already pulled out of the Clarendon Hills station.
I had hoped to ask them personally what they had been thinking, but when I showed up to see them Monday afternoon at the critical care unit at Good Samaritan Hospital, the nurses quite understandably turned me away.
May, 55, is in critical condition. Stuart, 69, is listed in fair condition. Due to privacy laws, the nature of their injuries have not been disclosed, but I take it they were busted up pretty good.
Stuart, though, was up and walking by the time Clarendon Hills Fire Chief Brian Leahy says he arrived first on the scene in response to a call from a passerby who reported seeing the men jump from the train.
A tough old coot
Stuart — listed by police at 5-foot-11, 120 pounds — must be one tough old coot.
At first, he claimed that May had been hit by the train, which by this time was long gone as nobody on the train crew was aware of what had happened. But that dog didn’t hunt and eventually Stuart fessed up to police that the two had forced the train doors open after missing their stop. Police estimate the train was going about 25 miles per hour.
It’s still a little unclear whether they actually jumped from the train or just fell.
“I don’t think they realized the train was moving,” Leahy said.
If the two men thought their fall would be softened by the snow, they were mistaken.
“The snow wasn’t deep there,” Leahy said.
May, the one most severely injured, hadn’t even made it to the snow. He was still on the railroad ties, Leahy said.
I asked if there was any indication the two men had been drinking.
“They didn’t seem like they had a clear frame of mind,” Leahy said.
For those like me who at first blush thought this story might have involved a couple of businessmen who were still feeling the effects of some partying the previous night, maybe with a bet thrown in, no such luck.
The incident, after all, took place in broad daylight at 11 a.m.
Plus, May listed an address that checked out to the Mayflower Motel on Ogden Avenue. Stuart gave an address in West Palm Beach, Florida, but a call to the motel confirmed that he is staying there, too.
Companies want police action
In other words, they better fit the profile of somebody who has jumped a few freight trains in their time.
Leahy and Clarendon Hills Police Chief Patrick Anderson said they never did get a good explanation of why the men just didn’t stay on the train two more minutes until the next stop.
“I don’t know why they did what they did, but they went out of their way to do it,” Leahy said.
As of Monday afternoon, Anderson said his department was still in consultation with the DuPage County state’s attorney about possible charges against the men. Indications were that both Metra and the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, on whose line the incident took place, were looking for some action to be taken because of the service disruption.
Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said that while it is common for train riders to force the doors open, this is the first case she could remember of anyone jumping off.
But why do I think it won’t be the last?