(The Pioneer Press circulated the following article by Cathryn Gran on March 31.)
RIVER GROVE, Ill. — Railroad tracks are not playgrounds.
Railroad tracks need to be treated with respect.
“And if you look and listen, you will live,” conductor Tom McNamara told junior high students at River Grove School Thursday.
McNamara and Celeritas Green, public safety coordinator, are Operation Life Saver presenters with Metra, the commuter train division of the Regional Transportation Authority. The River Grove school is about a half-block south of the River Grove Metra station where 13-year-old Michael DeLarco of Schaumberg was hit by a train a died less than a month before.
“Every two hours of every day, someone is hit by a train in this country,” McNamara said shortly after a Bolingbrook man was killed by a train. “Illinois is (the) second-worst state for train/vehicle accidents and third worst for train/pedestrian accidents. Yet Illinois spends the most money on warning devices,” he noted.
McNamara said Metra spends $150,000 per unit for lights, bells and gates.
“Some people see the red flashing lights and think that means to hurry up and cross,” he said. “That’s why we had to add gates.”
Road crossings and pedestrian crossings are the only two legal places where people can cross, he noted. Otherwise, it is considered trespassing.
“It takes between 18 and 25 football fields for a train to stop,” McNamara said. “Trains are wider than the tracks. You got three feet on either side.
“You cannot judge the speed of train,” he continued. “At 70 mph, a train travels 100 feet per second. A car going 55 mph can stop in 200 feet.
“And if you find yourself in a car stuck on tracks, get out and run toward the train,” he advised. “By running toward the train, you avoid being hit by pieces of the car as the locomotive hits it.
“You know some people want to watch the train hit their car?” he asked.
Two activities that smack of poor judgment are leaving things on tracks and throwing things at trains, according to McNamara.
“Objects left on the tracks can shoot back out at you at 300 mph when train runs over them,” McNamara said. “And if you throw something at a train, it will bounce back at you,”
Box cars are dangerous, too.
“The door on a box car weighs 300 pounds,” McNamara said. “Box cars are not good places to play. If the train jerks, the door slams shut. Two kids were stuck in a car for nine days. They lost 21 pounds.
“And in real life, there is no way someone can safely lay on the tracks while a train passes over,” he said, showing a piece of rail that measured about four inches high and explaining that was all the room between the ground and the bottom of the train cars. “No one’s that skinny.
“And if you see your friends do something wrong, you have to tell them,” he added.
Asked how many train-related fatalities occurred in a year, McNamara said 520 pedestrians died in accidents last year and another 500 in cars.
“And all are 100 percent preventable,” he said. “You always have to look.”