ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997 TAG: 9703260059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
He kept his diabetes secret. Relatives said he had hoped to earn full wages a few more years before retiring.
A diabetic engineer who hid an eye disease that made it hard to tell colors caused the 1996 crash of two New Jersey trains that killed him and two others, a federal safety panel ruled Tuesday.
Engineer John DeCurtis could not tell he was running a stop signal, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
DeCurtis, 59, sped up his eastbound train just before a stop signal on Feb. 9, 1996. It rammed a westbound train, killing DeCurtis, the other train's engineer and a passenger.
The crash in Secaucus, N.J., injured 158 people.
A search of DeCurtis' medical records turned up a positive 1987 test for sugar in his urine, investigator Burt Simon told the board. Investigators learned from DeCurtis' doctor that he had been treated at least nine years for diabetes.
It led to the deteriorating eye disease. Simon said DeCurtis could compensate for it at first with his 34 years' experience, but, ``It became more difficult for the engineer to distinguish red from yellow signal lights.''
Board member John Hammerschmidt asked why DeCurtis kept operating a train.
``His family said he hoped to work a few more years before retiring,'' Simon said. ``We believe it may have been associated with financial considerations.''
DeCurtis earned $70,000 a year as an engineer and could have been reduced to $40,000 in another position, or $25,000 if he had retired on medical disability.
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB