Train Speed Caused Metra Derailment

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Sep 19, 2005 2:25PM

Investigators say speed was the cause of the Metra train derailment this weekend.The train was going 69 miles/hour when it shouldn't have been going faster than 10 miles/hour.

If we understand this correctly, signals were working right about 6/10ths of a mile from a crossover switch, which should have been enough time for the train to slow down before switching tracks. But for some reason the train kept going at 59 miles/hour over what it should have been going while making the switch. This caused the train to derail. This information was gathered from the train's "black box."

The train's engineer was also interviewed for 3 hours. He'd been on the job for only 45 days after completing Metra's 6-month training program. Before that he'd worked for more than 5 years as a freight train engineer. No word on any information gathered from that interview.

The train carried 185 passengers. 17 people suffered serious injuries, including one person who had a body part severed when a spinning wheel of the train cut through the floor. There were 2 fatalities - 22-year-old UIC student Jane Cuthbert who was on her way to volunteer teach English to immigrant kids and Allison Walsh, a 38-year-old animal researcher at the Brookfield Zoo. She was on her way to deliver a paper at the American American Zoo and Aquarium Association's annual convention in Chicago.

Image via AP