Bonnie Miller Rubin’s March 12 article, “Peace lies among pain of Amtrak aftermath,” was excellent, as it showed the incredible loss of people who were involved in the unfortunate train accident in Bourbonnais. I still don’t understand why the truck driver is still walking the streets free and has not been charged with second-degree murder.
The loss of life could have been prevented if Amtrak placed the freight express cars behind the locomotives and ahead of the passenger cars. This was a safety practice done by the railroads for more than 100 years in order to provide as much protection for people in passenger cars in case of a head-end accident. If the express cars were at the head-end of the train, the personal injuries would have been minimal and no deaths would have been experienced. What failed in this terrible accident was the concern and care for safety.
Amtrak’s argument is that it is less costly for them to put this equipment on the rear of their passenger trains, which are slowly transforming into freight trains with passenger cars. I believe legislation is needed to require all passenger transporting railroads to have any railcars not carrying passengers but revenue-generating inanimate objects located behind the locomotives and ahead of the passenger cars.
