[Southsider2k12]

http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-1-dead-after...0,4416169.story

By Ted Land (tland@wsbt.com)
12:35 a.m. EDT, October 8, 2012

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY -- A 22 year old man was killed when his SUV was hit by a South Shore Line passenger train, Sunday night.

Emergency crews were called to the scene just after 8 pm at the intersection of Pine Rd. and Ardmore Trail in St. Joseph County.

Police say 204 people were onboard the train. None were hurt.

The SUV was thrown several yards, landing on its roof.

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. His name was not released Sunday night because police were still notifying family members.

The train, which was travelling 70 miles per hour in a 79 mile per hour zone, was headed eastbound, due in at South Bend airport at 8:14 pm, police said.

The train left Chicago at 4:43 pm CST.

Police say there was no indication that the crossing arms and lights were malfunctioning at the time of the crash.

"I was laying there asleep and I heard a big bump," said Lacranston Durham, a passenger, "and before you know it the train flew kind of backwards."

The train stopped roughly one hundred yards from the crossing. It waited there for at least an hour while crews inspected the cars for damage.

Damage to the train was minimal, police said, and it was allowed to continue on to the South Bend airport, where it arrived around 10 pm.

The South Shore train’s conductor and engineer were the only two witnesses to the collision, police said, though they believe a video camera on the train may have captured the moment of impact.

A freight train was travelling westbound on a nearby set of tracks when the South Shore train struck the SUV, police said.

The crossing has since reopened to both rail and vehicle traffic.

Saturday and Sunday were busy days for the South Shore line, which ran extra passenger trains to carry people to the Notre Dame football game in Chicago.

[Ang]

Um....Notre Dame played in Chicago this weekend?

[Southsider2k12]

Um....Notre Dame played in Chicago this weekend?

Yes, they played Miami at Soldier Field on Saturday night.

[Ang]

Cool. Why did they play a Florida team in Chicago? That seems a little odd....

And it's tragic about the accident.....people need to NOT cross the tracks when the gates are down. It amazes me how often this happens and people still don't learn.

[Southsider2k12]

Cool. Why did they play a Florida team in Chicago? That seems a little odd....

And it's tragic about the accident.....people need to NOT cross the tracks when the gates are down. It amazes me how often this happens and people still don't learn.

No idea on the particulars of why they did it that way.

And as for the South Shore, it amazes me of how far NICTD has to go to stop people from doing incredibly stupid things. All you have to do is look at the crossing where many people died at the Lake/Porter County line road to understand what I mean.

[Ang]

Isn't that the one where they put gates on both sides of the road, on both sides of the tracks, with those big barrier things between the lanes of travel? It's seems a little over-kill but I understand they had to do that to keep idiots from trying to go around?

[Southsider2k12]

Isn't that the one where they put gates on both sides of the road, on both sides of the tracks, with those big barrier things between the lanes of travel? It's seems a little over-kill but I understand they had to do that to keep idiots from trying to go around?

That is exactly it. Each of those layers was added after someone got killed at that intersection. I have been on two different trains that hit people trying to beat the train at that exact spot.