- 7 -
Local authorities had no official record of any previous train/motor vehicle collision at the crossing. The Illinois Commerce Commission, however, did have a notation of a train/automobile collision that occurred at the crossing in 1965.
At the time of the accident, the weather was clear and sunny. The sun would have been positioned directly behind the truckdriver and it would not have hindered him in sighting the crossing and the train.
The Railroad—The single track is straight for more than 1 mile north of the grade crossing. It is relatively level, runs north and south, and intersects the road at an angle of 78 degrees. The track is owned and maintained by the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad (ICG). The timetable speed for the track is 79 mph. About four passenger and three freight trains move over the crossing daily.
This track is a segment of the high-speed, passenger rail corridor which runs for 284 miles between Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri The corridor includes 259 public grade crossings; about 35 percent of the grade crossings have an average daily traffic count of 50 motor vehicles or less. Forty-two percent of the grade crossings are without active protection and many are intersected by narrow farm roads.
From September 1975 to January 1976 three major grade crossing accidents that involved passenger trains occurred within a 60-mile section of the corridor. The Manhattan Road grade crossing was in this 60-m11e section. These accidents killed 10 persons and injured 41. All of them occurred at unprotected crossings.
Records indicate that, in a 56—month period immediately preceding September 1975, there were a total of 79 train/motor vehicle collisions on the corridor Nineteen of those collisions killed 26 persons.
Marks on the Roadway
Three arc-shaped tiremarks were found along the path followed by the truck after it began to swerve. The marks were identified as side scuff marks caused by the tires on the right side of the truck as it moved toward the southwest in a counterclockwise rotation. The longest mark, which was caused by the right rear outside tires, measured 108 feet 8 inches.
A gouge, caused by the rim of the outside rear right wheel, was found parallel to the tiremark made by that wheel as it moved across the centerline of the roadway. The gouge had a radius of 121.875 feet.
Several other gouges, caused by the overturned truck as it slid toward the track, also were found on the road. (See Figure 1.)
