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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