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mokenamessenger.com news<br />

the Mokena Messenger | February 21, 2019 | 3<br />

From feb 14<br />

Pedestrian struck, killed at Metra Hickory Creek station<br />

T.J. Kremer III, Editor<br />

Metra has confirmed that<br />

a pedestrian at its Hickory<br />

Creek station has died<br />

after being struck by a<br />

train.<br />

Kathryn M. Joost, 23, of<br />

Palos Hills was pronounced<br />

dead at 5:15 p.m. Thursday,<br />

Feb. 14, according to a press<br />

release by will County Coroner’s<br />

Office. An autopsy<br />

to determine final cause of<br />

death is scheduled for Friday,<br />

Feb. 15, according to<br />

that same press release.<br />

The incident occurred at<br />

around 4 p.m., according to<br />

Metra spokesperson Meg<br />

Reile<br />

An inbound train to<br />

Chicago, not scheduled<br />

for service and carrying<br />

no passengers, was being<br />

moved between the<br />

regularly scheduled 3:41<br />

p.m. and 4:39 p.m. arrival<br />

times at the time of the<br />

incident.<br />

Metra police are investigating<br />

the incident.<br />

As of press time, Will<br />

County Coroner’s office<br />

had not released a final determination<br />

for manner of<br />

death.<br />

Mokena Police Chief<br />

Steve Vaccaro said that Mokena<br />

police were assisting,<br />

but that they have no further<br />

comment.<br />

Metra CEO admits to communication failures<br />

Safety reports show<br />

communication<br />

errors go back to<br />

2014<br />

Megan Schuller<br />

Assistant Editor<br />

Local residents gathered<br />

for a town hall to discuss<br />

the Metra crossing at 191st<br />

Street in Mokena.<br />

The town hall, held Feb.<br />

11 at Lincoln-Way East in<br />

Frankfort, included a playby-play<br />

presentation of the<br />

Nov. 9 gate activation failure<br />

from Metra CEO James<br />

M. Derwinski and a Q&A<br />

with the general public. The<br />

event was focused on the<br />

malfunction of the equipment;<br />

however, there was a<br />

less-addressed issue at hand:<br />

the internal communication<br />

within Metra that led to<br />

these near-misses not being<br />

properly reported.<br />

A Federal Railroad Authority<br />

Safety Report issued<br />

in 2014 addressed communication<br />

errors in several areas.<br />

Metra spokesperson Michael<br />

Gills claimed that the communication<br />

issues are not the<br />

same; however, these “new”<br />

communication errors raised<br />

questions among residents.<br />

Town hall<br />

Retired Amtrak train dispatcher<br />

Robert Hardwidge,<br />

of Orland Park, spoke during<br />

the public Q&A with Metra<br />

at the town hall, using his<br />

knowledge of the railroad<br />

industry to question Derwinski.<br />

“I think the investigation<br />

of this should be treated as<br />

if there is always a major<br />

fatality event. We lucked<br />

out by seconds,” Hardwidge<br />

said to Derwinski. “That’s a<br />

very serious incident. That<br />

[happened on] a Friday. No<br />

report showed up until Monday,<br />

[and was reported as]<br />

just as a malfunction, not a<br />

serious situation.”<br />

Besides the gate activation<br />

failure that train No.<br />

412 and 506 experienced<br />

on Nov. 9, which was extensively<br />

reported on, one<br />

train experienced the crossing<br />

arm pumping, meaning it<br />

went down and up. That was<br />

reported to a dispatcher, but<br />

the dispatcher did not further<br />

report that to the maintainer.<br />

“There was one train that<br />

the engineer didn’t report,”<br />

Gillis said. “The following<br />

train told the dispatcher. ...<br />

He didn’t realize it was more<br />

serious. ... That was another<br />

issue that we didn’t find out<br />

about until after the dash<br />

cam footage came out [on<br />

Dec. 21], and we looked at<br />

it more closely to realize it<br />

wasn’t just the one train.”<br />

Other residents raised<br />

questions of the crossing’s<br />

safety, of reinstating train<br />

Metra CEO James M. Derwinski address local residents<br />

Feb. 11 at Lincoln-Way East in Frankfort at a town hall<br />

hosted by State Senator Michael Hastings to explain<br />

the events of a Nov. 9 near-miss with a Metra train and a<br />

Mokena police officer. Megan Schuller/22nd Century Media<br />

horns at the crossing and of<br />

educating local school children<br />

on rail safety.<br />

“All crossings in Mokena<br />

have undergone at least three<br />

inspections since Nov. 9. No<br />

problems were found,” Gillis<br />

said. “The 191st Street<br />

crossing has been tested at<br />

least five times in recent<br />

weeks following recent incidents.<br />

No problems were<br />

found.”<br />

FRA safety report<br />

The FRA published a focus<br />

safety assessment in<br />

September 2014, outlining<br />

several recommendations<br />

it made to Metra regarding<br />

communication errors that<br />

caused concerns for safety at<br />

the time.<br />

The report was in response<br />

to three incidents involving<br />

Metra trains over the<br />

week of May 27, 2014-June<br />

3, 2014 on its Rock Island<br />

and Metra Electric lines;<br />

the two Rock Island line incidents<br />

involved trains exceeding<br />

the maximum speed<br />

limit, and the Metra Electric<br />

line involved a train passing<br />

through a stop signal at a station.<br />

The assessment stated<br />

that, ”The FRA also identified<br />

other concerns that<br />

affect safety at Metra, including:<br />

Metra’s safety culture<br />

and communications,<br />

conflicts between safetysensitive<br />

duties and other<br />

responsibilities, reporting<br />

rules infractions. ... FRA recommends<br />

that Metra address<br />

these concerns.”<br />

The assessment found<br />

that: safety-related communication<br />

between engineers<br />

and conductors was<br />

inconsistent, reporting rule<br />

infractions from operating<br />

districts to headquarters was<br />

slow and lacked detail, and<br />

that Metra needed a system<br />

in place to identify the “root<br />

causes and early indicators<br />

of risk to railroads.”<br />

According to the FRA,<br />

the safety evaluation was<br />

an overarching examination<br />

of the culture and practices<br />

regarding safety at Metra.<br />

The FRA enforces only federal<br />

regulations but provides<br />

recommendations to help<br />

organizations like Metra<br />

maintain federal regulations.<br />

Recommendations are not<br />

enforced.<br />

“Since releasing the report,<br />

our team has followed<br />

up through routine inspection<br />

activities and continue<br />

to do so,” FRA spokesperson<br />

LaRaye Brown said.<br />

The FRA made several<br />

specific recommendations<br />

to Metra, including: implementing<br />

what would become<br />

the Confidential Close Call<br />

Reporting System, which<br />

allows employees to anonymously<br />

report misconduct<br />

to NASA; establishing new<br />

procedures to strengthen<br />

the flow of information infractions<br />

between districts<br />

and Metra headquarters to<br />

improve oversight and retraining<br />

of operating districts<br />

employees; improving<br />

communication between<br />

conductors and engineers;<br />

and implementing the positive<br />

train control. The FRA<br />

stated that Metra did comply<br />

and respond to the recommendations.<br />

To improve communications<br />

between conductors<br />

and engineers in the train<br />

cab, a system was implemented<br />

for conductors to<br />

remind engineers of speed<br />

restrictions along the track.<br />

Gillis explained that a chime<br />

sounds and the conductors<br />

must radio to the engineers<br />

as a reminder. This is meant<br />

to solve one of the problems<br />

from back in 2014, after a<br />

derailment occurred because<br />

of train speed.<br />

Metra adopted the Close<br />

Call Reporting System in<br />

April 2015 with their transportation<br />

department unions<br />

and expanded it in March<br />

2016 to other unions at Metra.<br />

It is a partnership between<br />

FRA and NASA that<br />

operates in conjunction with<br />

participating railroads and<br />

labor organizations; however,<br />

according to the FRA<br />

and Metra, this near-miss<br />

occurrence on Nov. 9 would<br />

not be something reported in<br />

the Confidential Close Call<br />

Please see metra, 7

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