Passenger Trains > 25 Years Since Fox River Grove

This Sunday will mark 25 years since the tragic collision in Fox River Grove between a school bus and a Chicago-bound Metra express. Nice article in the Chicago Sun Times today: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2020/10/23/21523518/fox-river-grove-metra-school-bus-crash-survivors-ford-dotson-debbie-owens-michael-lucas
 

Are there similar crossings in the Chicago area that have similar situations where they modified the traffic lights ? 

There are literally dozens of them along the UP Northwest Line.

The cause was IDOT "improving the safety" of the intersection of the two streets 
when new traffic lights were installed.

When a train hit the approach the traffic lights on the street paralleling the CNW (Route 14) would 
not (if then green) immediately go to yellow and then red, clearing the light for the street
that crossed the tracks.  The ID(i)OT safety standards required the pedestrian signal for 
the sidewalk on Route 14 to go through its warning time sequence changing 
from "Walk" to "Don't Walk" before initiating the yellow traffic signal on Route 14. 
Those extra seconds spent on the walk sign allowed the train to eat up the distance.

Most trains stopped at the station just west of the crossing providing more time
for the lights to change.  The accident train was an express that did not stop
at the station.
 

And I remember my school bus getting tangled in traffic crossing the C&NW tracks probably at Emerson Street in Mount Prospect, then backing up to break the lowering gate while turning onto Prospect Avenue. This was southbound at the end of the day. No one bailed out of the bus and we went on our way like nothing happened. 

I had a co-worker at the time that was a passenger on the train.
He was a railroad officer but not with the CNW or Metra.
Not a regular commuter but taking the train downtown for a meeting.

He got on at Crystal Lake and took the rear seat in the rear car on the 
engineer's side. The train was an express train but it slowed somewhat approaching Cary
(the station before Fox River Grove) to allow a westbound Metra to make its
station stop at Cary.  Then it was back off to the races.

Approaching Fox River Grove a trainman was seated in the rear portion of the 
rear car on the fireman's side, in the "4-seater" just inside the vestibule doors.
The trainman had the morning newspaper spread out on the facing seat and 
was taking it easy before the train got packed.

As the rear car was in the vicinity of the east end of the bridge over the Fox River
bridge he heard the air go and felt a very light run in of slack.  His initial thought 
was that the engineer had forget that the train was supposed to stop at Fox
River Grove and dumped the air.  A few seconds later, just after the rear car
went by the depot the trainman shouted an expletive and shot out of his seat
to the vestibule.  The train stopped way east of the street crossing.

After a few minutes there was a murmur among other passengers that a school bus
had been struck.  My co-worker went to the door that had been left open by the trainman
and looked back towards the crossing.  What he saw looked like a bus in a ditch 
at right angles to the track.  Actually the bus was not in the ditch.  What he saw was
the bus body detached from the bus frame sitting upright on ground.

Then all hell broke loose with fire trucks, ambulances, and helicopters flooding the area.

He said the most heart-breaking scenes he ever saw were mothers running down the sidewalk
on Route 14 in their robes and slippers heading towards the accident scene.


 

Well, New Hyde Park on the LIRR just lost the last of its 3 grade crossings. Mineola is next.

https://www.amodernli.com/last-of-new-hyde-park-grade-crossings-eliminated/

https://www.amodernli.com/lirr-expansion-project-hits-halfway-point-ahead-of-schedule-and-under-budget/

A crossing in Westbury last year had a vehicle with 3 super market employees drive around the gates (fleeing a traffic stop), got bumped by an eastbound train, thrown into the path of a westbound train, got pulverized between the 2 trains, and caused the westbound train to derail and plow into a high level concrete platform,  destroying the lead MU car and sending concrete piling into the car. The engineers managed to escape his cab.