Idiots.

If you are stupid enough to kill yourself, dont do it by putting others in danger. Driving a car into a train is the dumbest thing you could do.

My train ride home last night took 2.5 hours instead of 30 minutes because of this, which delays are delays...but putting other peoples lives in danger....*angry*

Amtrak crash victims ID'd

Tribune staff report
Published August 17, 2006, 7:01 AM CDT

Officials this morning released the identities of two men killed Wednesday when an Amtrak passenger train bound for San Francisco smashed into their sedan in Berwyn.

The victims were identified as Thomas Bukinham, 37, of the 200 block of North 5th Street in Royalton, Ill. and Donald Watz, of the 1800 block of South 58th Court, Cicero, according to a Cook County medical examiner's office spokesman.

Berwyn police and the Illinois State police are investigating what happened before Amtrak's California Zephyr Train No. 5 slammed into the side of their sedan at the crossing at East and Stanley Avenues in the west suburb.

Witnesses described a terrible scene at the accident site, with the silver sedan dragged some 1,400 feet west to Oak Park Avenue where there was a sudden burst of heavy smoke.

Tim McNamara, 44, left George's Tavern overlooking the tracks to help. He said he stood helpless over the wreckage so mangled with bits of fencing and steel posts that it no longer looked much like a car.

"They were dead," he said, with posts spearing the men's bodies. "There was no question."

Joe Clemens, 25, had just finished a moving job and had happened into the same tavern to check the bus schedule and grab a beer. He, too, ran out when he saw the smoke.

"Their seats were reclined all the way back," said Clemens, who noted that he saw little blood.

None of the 250 train passengers or crew members was injured, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

The Amtrak crew told police "the vehicle drove directly in their path," Magliari said. He could not immediately say what the train's speed limit is in that area.

Berwyn Division Cmdr. Tom O'Halloran said there were no signs of a signal malfunction at the East Avenue crossing.

The westbound train was traveling along Metra's Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks. The accident halted the trip for 3 hours and 45 minutes. Passengers were not allowed to leave the train.

Their journey resumed at 5:48 p.m. with the same crew.

Eastbound trains were allowed through at about 3:15 p.m., O'Halloran said.



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