Illinois Central Train Crash.. Oct 1972..

[Stuart G]

I was on my way to work, and passed a crowd of people coming away from what looked like a problem with one of the Illinois Central Commuter trains. This happened several blocks from where I lived and I passed that place each day.

I became interested in that crash, whose cause was when an engineer backed up a train and caused a train signal to flip to the wrong color. One train smashed into another. If I recall correctly, 43 people were killed. The Chicago Fire Org. put this video up on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gerB7ZwjKq4

In some ways it is similar to crash of yesterday. My guess is someone missed a signal just like 37 years ago. It is not pretty to watch, but that is what is to be avoided. It happened in very poor light at dawn. I wonder what the cause will be for this one?