Investigators say signals, warning gates not working properly in fatal Ill. train crash

Officials: Signals out in fatal Ill. train crash

CHICAGO — The gates and warning lights at a suburban Chicago rail crossing weren’t functioning properly and may have been turned off when an Amtrak train fatally struck the SUV of a dance teacher last week, federal investigators said Tuesday.

Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau said witness accounts and video footage confirmed the active warning system in University Park didn’t work on Friday when 26-year-old Katie Lunn of Chicago was killed.

“The crux of our investigation is to determine if they were turned off,” he said. “They were not functioning as intended at the time of the collision.”

He declined to give more details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Canadian National owns tracks in the area of the crash and admitted the signals weren’t working, said spokesman Patrick Waldron. CN crews were working on the crossing at Stuenkel Road earlier on the day of the crash, but Waldron declined to say why.

“CN will not comment further on the particulars of the investigation, or of any of the factors that may be associated with the incident, until that investigation is further advanced,” he said in an e-mailed statement.

Waldron said the gates and warning lights have since been fixed.

Lunn, who grew up in Iowa, was pronounced dead Friday. The dance instructor from the School of Performing Arts in Naperville was returning to her Chicago home from a student dance competition at Governors State University.

Visitation was planned for Friday at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Funeral services were planned for Saturday at the same location.

“Time heals things, but we’ve still got some pretty tough times to go through,” her father Jerry Lunn told the Chicago Tribune.