A railroad company knew its train crossing in Aurora was dangerous and could have prevented an accident that killed two DuPage County teenagers, recently filed court papers allege.
The documents surfaced earlier this week in relation to the collision that killed Krishna Bharadwaj of Naperville and Arvin Rao of Westmont. Today marks the second anniversary of the teens’ death in that crash.
Bharadwaj and Rao, both 16, had spent most of April 11, 1999, hopping from library to library to research a science project. The boys were headed east on Ogden Avenue in Aurora when a freight train on the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad clipped the back of Bharadwaj’s Toyota Camry.
The train’s whistle blew several times and the warning lights and bells also were working, according to police reports. The car, however, maintained its speed as it approached the tracks.
The Camry entered the crossing easily. There were no gates to prevent its admission.
That, according to a lawsuit filed by Rao’s parents, is where the railroad failed the boys.
Documents filed in the case show the railroad company had been instructed to install gates as early as 1997 but had not done so.
In a May 7, 1997, letter to the company, the Illinois Department of Transportation requested the gates because of visibility problems at the crossing. The railroad responded with a $155,000 plan to install the gates during the next fiscal year, when federal funds would be available.
Three months later, a company engineer scribbled an addendum saying the money had not yet become available.
“Need federal approval,” EJ& E engineer Dennis R. Ojard wrote on the memo. “Have not applied yet. Expect to do next month…unlikely now to get in before April 1999.”
The Raos’ lawyers says the company’s inability to install the gates before April 1999 resulted in the teenagers’ deaths.
“There’s no doubt the railroad had a visibility problem,” said Timothy Cavanagh, the family’s attorney. “Had they corrected it, the deaths would not have occurred.”
Railroad spokesman James P. Bobich would not comment. Gates have since been installed at the crossing.
State officials first learned about the visibility problems in April 1997 when Naperville resident Florence Dowdy filed a complaint with the Illinois Commerce Commission. Dowdy, a mother of Waubonsie Valley High School students, worried about children – teenage drivers, in particular – passing through the ungated crossing on the way to school each day.
Two weeks after she registered her grievance, the commission sent her a letter saying the crossing had restricted visibility. As a result, the letter says, gates would be installed.
“I just felt it was very unsafe,” Dowdy said. “I thought with all the children going to Waubonsie, something should be done. I did the best I could do.”
Arvin Rao’s parents, Mani and Murali, also have become advocates for improved railroad crossings. The family, which emigrated from India in 1998, questions why all crossing don’t have gates as they do in their native country.
“They don’t understand why a country like ours does not live up to obligations to protect people,” Cavanagh said.
The Raos’ lawsuit seeks an undisclosed amount in damages. A trial date has not been set.
Suit: Railroad claimed it didn’t have funds for gates
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