TRAIN CRASH PROMPTS REVISED SPEED, TRUCK LENGTH LIMITS

The Federal Railroad Administration said Thursday it has imposed
restrictions on the speed of trains and the length of trucks at a Portage,
Ind., grade crossing where three people were killed last week in the
collision of a South Shore Railroad commuter train and a truck hauling steel
coils.

In addition to lowering maximum train speeds to 40 miles per hour from 65
m.p.h. within 1 1/2 miles of the crossing and imposing 55-foot limits on the
length of trucks traveling over the multi-track crossing at night, the
railroad agency is ordering lighting improvements and installation of
additional warning signs.

In the predawn accident June 18, the driver of a 72-foot-long,
double-trailer truck straddled the South Shore tracks after becoming boxed
inside the 70-foot-long space between the commuter railroad's tracks and
freight tracks crossing U.S. Highway 12 in Portage. Accident investigators
determined that the crew of the Chicago-bound commuter train had only 5 to 7
seconds' warning to apply the brakes.

Also Thursday, Porter County prosecutors continued to weigh possible
criminal charges against the truck's driver, who tested positive for
marijuana, officials said.

"The prosecutor's office is reviewing what, if anything, the (urine) test
means in terms of trying to determine how long before the accident the drug
was used," said Portage Police Chief David Reynolds.

Despite a week-old request by federal officials to submit part of the
collected blood and urine specimens to the National Transportation Safety
Board for more sophisticated drug analysis, Indiana officials had not
complied by Thursday, said NTSB spokesman Matt Furman.

Porter County deputy prosecutor Mike Drenth, who is handling the case, did
not return phone calls Wednesday or Thursday.

A federal official close to the case said a lack of cooperation by the local
officials has hampered the investigation.

"The prosecutor said he won't decide on pressing felony charges against the
truck driver until they get the more meaningful test results from us
regarding when the marijuana was used, but they haven't released the samples
for us to test," said the official, who requested anonymity.

Meanwhile, the Chicago chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said
there are more reliable methods than drug testing to monitor the sobriety of
workers in the transportation industry.

"None of the drug-testing technologies is 100 percent accurate and they do
not measure impairment, only past use," said ACLU spokesman Bill Spain.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett