Elderly man dies after fall from train

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Save Our Trains Michigan

Conductor
Joined
Jun 19, 2003
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Location
Harrison Michigan
CHICAGO -- Officials said an elderly man died Sunday (May 8) after falling from an Amtrak train about 75 miles south of Chicago, according to this Chicago Tribune report.

George Washington, 86, of San Pablo, Calif., died of cerebral injuries, said a Cook County medical examiner's spokeswoman.

His death was ruled an accident.

UTU News storys
 
Thanks for sharing the story with us. I have always been concerned about the lack of security/latches on the Superliner vestibule doors. The crews occasionally forget to close them :eek: (some of you probably remember the story I shared about the kid leaning out of an open door on the Zephyr over the Yolo Causeway in California a few months back) and often forget to latch down the top latch. Even when properly double latched it is still too easy to open the doors up since you don't need any kind of crew key and opening the door does not send any kind of warning signal to the conductor or engineer.
 
jccollins said:
Thanks for sharing the story with us. I have always been concerned about the lack of security/latches on the Superliner vestibule doors. The crews occasionally forget to close them :eek: (some of you probably remember the story I shared about the kid leaning out of an open door on the Zephyr over the Yolo Causeway in California a few months back) and often forget to latch down the top latch. Even when properly double latched it is still too easy to open the doors up since you don't need any kind of crew key and opening the door does not send any kind of warning signal to the conductor or engineer.
Click to expand...
the reason they have to be easy to open is for emergencys it's a ctach 22 if you ask me but they need to be able for passengers to open in an emergency.
 
You guys made a few good points. Typically the crew's don't use both latches, at least it seems that way when I pay attention to that detail. I think that its much more important that the doors are easy to open in an emergency than to be secure and difficult to open...especially since this is an unusual (though unfortante) event.
 
As previously stated, it is sorta a catch22 situation. The vestibule doors exiting to the outside of the train are the second prefered method of evacuating a passenger railcar (with first prefered being evacuating into next ahead car or to the next rear car, and the third being the emergency windows) in the event of an emergancy. They need to be somewhat easy to figure out how to open for the passengers if such an emergancy should come to pass. This incident is obviously an isolated deal as this doesn't happen everyday! However, this may demonstrate the need for fellow employees to make sure they latch both latches after closing the door. And if the door has a lock (similar to the Amfleet II equipment), employees should be sure to place that lock in the up position in the name of safety. I will bring this up in my next crew briefing prior to my next trip. It always pays to keep up with safety awareness as well as the usual safety information (they usually review a safety rule for each direction) they go over with us prior to each trip. OBS...
 
Witnesses said Washington opened the door of Amtrak's City of New Orleans train outside of Chicago and stepped off. It happened around 9:30 p.m. Saturday in Iroquois County about 73 miles south of Chicago on tracks owned by Canadian National Railway. The train speed was 79 mph, said Amtrak spokesman Mark Magliari.

A passenger notified the train crew, which stopped the train and alerted police, Magliari said. Washington was still alive and was taken to a hospital in Cook County

Story
 
Yaeh, I was aware of the fact he opened the door on his own. That is why I agreed with you with the fact it is a catch22 situation. But I as an OBS employee I also reconize the fact (as one of the posters here) regarding some on board personell including conductors. They sometimes are either in a hurry, forget, or don't think about the importance of latching the safety latches before departure. This guy obviously thought got the door open (whether the latches were down or not) and was gonna exit the train period. It was a bad situation all the way around. It is hard to say what was going on in his mind. Being he was an elderly man he may have been confused. I get those type all the time. OBS...
 

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