Deadly Train Crossing Gets $3.5 Million Facelift
The site of last year's deadly collision between an Amtrak train and a tractor-trailer loaded with steel rods near Bourbonnais, Ill., will get $3.5 million in safety improvements
The site of last year's deadly collision between an Amtrak train and a tractor-trailer loaded with steel rods near Bourbonnais, Ill., will get $3.5 million in safety improvements.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Department of Transportation plans to install new signals and to shift a segment of Illinois Highway 50 in Bourbonnais farther away from the Illinois Central Railroad tracks.
Local officials then plan to close the crossing where 11 passengers died in March 1999, when an Amtrak train slammed into a trailer truck hauling steel that was straddling the tracks, the article stated.
The state is spending $40 million on 24 crossing upgrades this year.
Ryan, along with local officials, has said the crossings along Illinois 50 have been a danger for years and acknowledged the Amtrak wreck heightened safety concerns.
The incident involved trucker John Stokes, who was hauling a load of steel over the Illinois Central tracks when the gates came down. Investigators and Stokes disagreed on whether he drove around the gates or whether they came down around him. Stokes’ rig was straddling the crossing when the train struck his trailer at 79 mph, reported the Tribune.
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