Sunday Marked 20 Years Since Fatal School Bus-Train Crash in Fox River Grove

Photo credit: Fox River Grove Fire Department Facebook page Photo caption: Ambulance number 657 has a halo over the seven marking the “seven angels” killed on Oct. 25, 1995. The crossing where the crash took place to this day is known as “Seven Angels Crossing,” according to the Northwest Herald.

Sunday marks the twentieth anniversary of a fatal school bus crash that claimed the lives of seven Cary-Grove High School students.

The crash has had a lasting affect on the emergency personnel who rushed to the scene of the crash, the survivors, and, of course, the family and friends of loved ones killed when a Metra train slammed into the back of the bus in Fox River Grove on Oct. 25, 1995.

“To this point, 20 years afterwards, it still affects me,” Fox Rover Grove Fire Department Deputy Chief Jim Kreher told ABC 7 News. “I knew we had to get a lot of ambulances here; we had a lot of patients. I didn’t know the severity of some of the patients. Of course, seven of them died.”

Those killed in the crash were: Jeffrey Clark, 16; Stephanie Fulham, 15; Susanna Guzman, 18; Michael Hoffman, 14; Joe Kalte, 16; Shawn Robinson, 14; and Tiffany Schneide, 15.

A substitute school bus driver who was unfamiliar with the route was driving the bus when she crossed over the train tracks on Algonquin Road and stopped at a red light at Northwest Highway at about 7:10 a.m., according to the Daily Herald. She did not realize the last 3.5-feet of the school bus were hanging over the tracks.

The guardrail went down on the back of the bus, a Metra engineer blared his horn and those sitting in the back of the bus tried to rush to the front but it was too late, the newspaper reports. The train slammed into the bus going 60 mph. All of those killed were sitting in the last four rows, according to the newspaper.

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The crash remains one of the deadliest rail crossing collisions in U.S. history.

Survivor Katie Burriss, whose maiden name is Krebeck, was 14 at the time of the crash and was sitting in the first seat of the bus, the Chicago Tribune reports. Her and her friends had agreed to sit behind the substitute driver to help her navigate the route.

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Burris recalls “Runaway” by Janet Jackson was playing on the radio when students began rushing to the front and then there was “dead silence,” according to the article. The driver stood up and turned around, starting to ask if everyone was OK, and Burriss said she recalls seeing the color drain from the woman’s face.

To this day, the Daily Herald reports the school bus driver, Patricia Catencamp, has never spoken publicly about the crash.

The crash sparked reforms including safer bus routes, better driver training, brighter lights on trains and more authority for the Illinois Commerce Commission to monitor crossings as well as the modification or installation of thousands of interconnects, which provides train information to traffic signals so vehicles can get off the train tracks, the Daily Herald reports.

The Daily Herald spoke to more survivors and families of victims in an article published Sunday.