Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FOX RIVER GROVE, ILL. LENGTH: Medium
Federal investigators said late Wednesday that they were looking into reports of a malfunctioning traffic light that may have led to the crash. The town's police chief happened to witness the crash because he was checking out recent reports of problems with the signal.
Some witnesses said the bus was trying to cross the tracks about 7:20 a.m. when it got caught behind a car at a red light and couldn't make it all the way across. But others said there was no car ahead and the driver could have moved forward.
``You could see the terror in their eyes,'' witness Coreen Bachinsky said. ``You could hear the metal, the glass flying, the screams. It was very, very scary.''
The signal light that may have malfunctioned is supposed to turn green when a train is approaching to let vehicles clear the track, said John Goglia of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The bus was taking the youngsters to 1,400-student Cary-Grove High School in Cary. The Chicago-bound express train sheared the body of the bus off the chassis, spinning it around 180 degrees.
``From then on out, all you heard was screaming,'' said Andrea Arens, 19, who was waiting for another train in this town 37 miles northwest of Chicago.
Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, and one died at a hospital. At least seven of the injured were in critical condition.
The wreckage of the bus was removed by Wednesday night. Several bouquets of flowers had been left at the scene, and candles flickered in the breeze around an impromptu shrine. An overflow crowd packed a church Wednesday night for a memorial service.
Taben Johanson, a 15-year-old who was sitting in his usual third-row seat on the bus, said the gate came down on the back of the bus and there was a car in front. Then he looked up and saw the train bearing down on them.
``I basically figured it out when all the kids were running forward, screaming,'' he said.
Jim Homola, a carpenter driving his children to school, said he had been stopped behind the bus. ``We started screaming, `Go! Go!''' he said. ``It was over in a matter of seconds.''
Homola said the bus driver ``was in hysterics'' afterward.
The driver, whose identity was not released, was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
She was filling in for the route's regular driver, students said. The secretary of state's office said the 54-year-old woman had been licensed to drive a school bus since 1987 and had a flawless driving record.
Hours after the accident, the body of the bus lay about 10 feet from the wheels and chassis, the steering wheel jutting in the air.
A nurse who helped out at the scene, Helen Getchell, said she suctioned out the throat of one injured boy with a turkey baster obtained from a nearby convenience store.
``He died in my arms,'' she said, adding that she hoped the boy's mother would know ``he didn't die by himself.''
``There were kids laying on the ground on the driver's side of the bus,'' said another witness, James Orlandino. ``It looked like they had been thrown out.''
School officials could not say exactly how many people were aboard the bus.
The crossing was guarded by a gate, bells, flashing lights and signs, but there was little space between the stoplight and the tracks, said Chris Knapton, a spokesman for Metra, which operates Chicago's suburban commuter trains.
``It's the kind of a crossing that railroaders hate,'' he said.
Mark Davis, a spokesman for Union-Pacific, which employs the train crew, said the engineer tried desperately to stop the train. ``He slowed down. Then he applied the emergency brake, then he got on the horn,'' Davis said.
Cathy Monroe, spokeswoman for Secretary of State George Ryan, said the school district had a fine safety record. ``They've set very high standards for themselves and their drivers,'' Monroe said.
At a hospital in nearby Barrington, cars lined up out of the parking lot and onto a highway as people showed up to donate blood.
Jason Kedrok, 16, was wearing a hospital bracelet and had bruises on his face and arm when he showed up at the accident scene to look at the wreck he had survived.
``Just looking at it now, I can't believe I got out of it,'' he said.
by CNB