(The Associated Press circulated the following article on September 28.)
KANKAKEE, Ill. — The truck driver involved in a deadly 1999 Amtrak derailment near Bourbonnais was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for violating driving time limits and logbook rules– the only criminal charges he faced.
The crash killed 11 people and injured 122 others aboard Amtrak’s “City of New Orleans.”
John R. Stokes, 63, was driving a truck loaded with steel the night of March 15, 1999, when the train hit it. The impact derailed the train, sending it smashing into other rail cars loaded with steel on an adjacent track.
Stokes was found guilty last month by Kankakee County Judge Clark Erickson of a willful violation of the maximum time limit for commercial truckers and willfully violating laws requiring him to keep an accurate logbook.
In sentencing Stokes, Erickson said that while it couldn’t be proven a lack of rest led to the accident, Stokes might have been able to avoid it if he hadn’t been fatigued.
Stokes did not make any comment in court, and Erickson ordered him immediately taken into custody.
The defense had argued that Stokes suffered from a variety of medical problems including diabetes, and that he should not serve jail time because he is not a danger to society.
The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that Stokes’ failure to heed railroad crossing signals and gates had caused the accident. Federal investigators also said Stokes had had just three to five hours of sleep in the 38 hours before the accident; federal rules at the time required an eight-hour break after 10 hours of driving.