About 20 Villa Park and Lombard residents who contributed to writing a list of railroad safety demands known as Kristen’s Law hope Villa Park’s new committee on public safety will act quickly on their proposal.
"I want it passed. I want our children to live," said Sue Wilkinson of Villa Park, a mother of two daughters who lost one of their best friends, Kristen Bowen.
Bowen, 14, of Lombard was hit by a freight train while crossing the tracks Feb. 1, a quarter-mile west of Addison Road. About a month prior on Jan. 8 Michael Christopher Mocarski, 23, of Villa Park, committed suicide after a westbound train struck him while he was sitting on the tracks at Summit Avenue.
Named after Bowen, one of the proposed measures in Kristen’s Law would require the railroads to erect 6-foot high, mile-long concrete fencing near schools and parks adjacent to railroad tracks. The proposal was brought to an April 20 meeting of Villa Park Village President Joyce Stupegia President’s Committee on Public Safety.
"Some said at the meeting that it would be like living in a prison," Wilkinson said. "But I’d rather live in a prison than lose another one. I just think the wall is a fantastic idea. I can’t lose another one."
The committee made up of 18 members from a cross section of regional government organizations is in its early stages, thought, and some committee members are unwilling to commit to Kristen’s Law without further study.
Stupegia formed the committee April 10 after two fatalities occurred on the tracks a little more than a month apart from one another.
"At this point, we’re still in the process of gathering information for the (Lombard) Transportation Committee," said committee member Wes Anderson, Lombard’s public works director.
Neither protective fencing nor how the cost of it might be split among towns and Union Pacific Railroad has been decided upon, said Tom Zapler, a committee member and a Union Pacific spokesman.
The railroad owns the right of way in Lombard, Anderson said, so the village has to have an agreement with Union Pacific before anything can be done in the way of fencing.
Reprinted with permission from the Lombard Spectator