Metra Settles with Plainfield Family in 2003 Derailment Lawsuit

For nine years, Megan Kuk, now 22, has suffered nightmares, her dad said.

Wife Kathryn, 54, has endured even worse: Three surgeries for a debilitating lower back injury she sustained on Oct. 12, 2003, when the family was aboard a Metra train that derailed on Chicago’s South Side.

The Kuks were taking the train home after dad Steven ran the Chicago Marathon.

On Friday, the Plainfield family and Metra reached a $1.8 million personal injury settlement that Steven Kuk said he hopes will allow his wife to stop working and resume a degree of normalcy after years of pain.

Now, the family is speaking out, saying the crash — and others like it — could have been prevented.

“What’s sad to us is that all these things could have been prevented,” Steven said, referring not only to the 2003 derailment that left 47 injured, but also a 2005 incident that occurred at nearly the same location, killing two women.

The Kuks believe the tragedies would never have happened if Metra trains had a safety system known as “positive train control,” which uses GPS technology to track trains and overrule human error to prevent crashes and derailments.

“There was a system that could have been in place at the time of the accident,” Steven said.

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Tim Cavanagh, the Kuk family’s attorney, believes Metra had the funding to install the system before the 2003 crash, but failed to take action.

“Metra still hasn’t put it in,” Cavanagh said.

Under the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, Metra and other passenger railroads have until 2015 to install positive train control systems on its trains.

Metra admitted it was liable for the 2003 derailment, which happened when the train’s engineer missed a red stop light as it approached the intersection of Federal Street and 47^th Street. The train’s recorded speed was a reported 68 mph in an area with a maximum speed of 10 mph.

But the rail line disagreed with the Kuk family on the extent of Kathryn’s injuries.

“Metra admitted liability immediately,” Cavanagh said. “They fought us every step of the way on whether this crash caused her condition.”

Since 2003, Kathryn has undergone two fusion surgeries to her lower back and had a permanent spinal cord pain stimulator implanted.

The device simply masks some of the pain she feels, Steven explained.

“There’s still pain, but because of this device, her brain doesn’t feel it,” he said.

Cavanagh said Kathryn will need surgery every five years to replace the batteries on the spinal cord stimulator.

Metra did not comment on the settlement, but a spokesman on Tuesday told the Chicago Tribune that the company is committed to installing positive train control by the 2015 deadline.

Life for the Kuk family has changed since that day in 2003.

While Steven and Megan, who was 13 at the time of the incident, suffered only minor injuries, Steven said his daughter has been plagued by nightmares.

“We were facing backwards, so when the train flew off the tracks and stopped quickly, we were just thrown into our seats pretty hard,” Steven said. “Kathryn was the one who suffered because she was facing forward. She just went flying and basically was bouncing back and forth between the seats.”

Since the crash, Steven and Megan have had to take over most household tasks.

Kathryn still works as a jeweler — a job that requires her to sit on a stool for much of the day.

“When she gets home from work, she goes to lie down,” Steven said.

“The simplest things are not so simple,” he added, “ so it’s really changed everything.”

Even the most ordinary of outings — like a trip to a movie — is impossible for the family, he said, since Kathryn isn’t able to sit for long stretches of time.

The family hopes the $1.8 million settlement will allow them to regain a measure of normalcy.

“What’s good about this is that maybe Kathy will be able to stop working,” Steven said.

He said the family agreed to speak out about the settlement in the hopes of preventing similar accidents.

“We just felt like this was important, that other people shouldn’t go through this,” he said. 

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