When I was picking up my son from Bernotas Junior High this afternoon a little after 2, I had to wait a long time to get through Woodstock Street.

Tree trimmers were out in force on Oak Street holding up traffic.

Metra train at the Pingree Road Station. Photo taken previously.

WBBM reported that the Metra train to Harvard was stopped at the Pingree Road Station, that passengers would be buses to stations as far away as Harvard and that the next train to Chicago would leave from Crystal Lake, rather than from Harvard.

No reason was given as to why.

I thought about driving over, but my son and I were on a mission—trimming the in-laws’ hedges in Wonder Lake.

Since then, the Crystal Lake Police Department has issued the following press release at 6:28 PM telling of what certainly sounds like a Phil Pagano copy cat suicide:

On Thursday, May 27, 2010, at approximately 12:56 PM, the Crystal Lake Police and the Crystal Lake Fire-Rescue Department responded to the area of Pingree Road, approximately 300 feet east of the train crossing, for a report of a pedestrian struck by a train.

Upon arrival, emergency personnel discovered the body of a male subject deceased at the scene. Train service was interrupted for approximately two hours while the scene was investigated. At this time there is no foul play suspected.

This case remains under investigation by the Crystal Lake Police Department. The subject has been identified however his identity is withheld pending notification of family members. Identity to be released at a later date.

Congressman Don Manzullo joined Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano and Metra Board member Jack Schaffer for the parking lot dedication the end of December.

The Pingree Road station is designed like European train stations.

Passengers can get from one side of the tracks to the other without crossing the tracks, as they must at most other Metra stations.

In the case of the Pingree Road Metra Station, there is a tunnel under the train tracks.

That makes the likelihood of this death’s being an accident remote, I believe.