As I was driving to Fox River Grove in mid-afternoon, a Crystal Lake Police Car was blocking Sands Road at Route 14.
This afternoon about 4 PM Sands Road was blocked at Route 14. A Metra commuter train was blocking the road.
On the way home, I drove from Route 14 to Sands Road via Smitana Raod, the one that cuts off 14 next to Country Gas.
Here’s what I saw:
Coming up the hill to where Sands Road crosses the Union Pacific train tracks one could see men standing around.
Getting closer, here was the view:
The Metra Conductor was talking to a man.
From Sands Road, here is what was visible:
Men in hard hats were present.
“Somebody walked in front of a train,” Metra Spokesman Tom Miller said.
It was the 709 train, which left Chicago at 1:30 Saturday afternoon.
The train was due at the Pingree Road Station at 3:48 in the afternoon. It left Cary five minutes earlier and had just crossed the Route 14 overpass.
A call to the Crystal Lake Police Department was referred to the Union Pacific Railroad.
UP Spokesman Mark Davis, out of Omaha, told me, “I wouldn’t have anything,” saying that local officials would release the information.
“We will provide peer support to the engineer and the train crew, if they need it.”
Crystal Lake’s most memorable “Death by Metra” occurred when Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano walked in front of the last train to Chicago from McHenry in May of 2009.
Given blanket coverage on Chicago electronic media, there were many copycat suicides in the following months.
I was on the 715 out of Chicago to Woodstock.
The train left at 3:30 and it took three hours to arrive.
All we were told is that there was a pedestrian accident.
Is it possible that a construction worker was hit?
Possible, but the CL Police Department has released no details yet.
Keep us posted Cal! I would like to know 🙂
Did this person spend last night in the company of Al Jourdan???
Good comment FYI.
Could it be the Sheriff’s Department that will issue the press release?
Good comment? Seriously?
As far as any of us know, this has absolutely nothing to do with Jourdan. But hey- let try and connect him to this possible suicide anyway! Awesome.
I was just thinking about Pagano’s suicide yesterday and the haste with which sheriff’s deputies carried boxes of (documents?) out of Pagano’s house so quickly after his death.
Why did they do that? Did they have a search warrant?
Supposedly a “friend” provided a key and access.
How did he have authority to admit the deputies and allow them to remove items?
Exactly what did happen to those boxes?