Steven D. Harden, 34, dies when his car is struck by Amtrak train at no-gate crossing in Wilmington, Illinois

 I take great exception to your statement that many rail-road crossing accidents are caused by distracted train operators.  I am a retired 40 year train service employee and to blame this accident on the train crew is out touch with reality.  Witnesses state that the train was blowing the horn, bell sounding and the crossing lights were flashing!!  What more can they do??  Railroads are a fixed alignment mode of transportation and can't swerve to avoid a mishap.  Appropiate measures were taken by the crew and the warning devices were functioning as designed.  Error by the vehicle driver appears to be the prevailing cause of this incident!!

That particular RR crossing has seen many accidents per the deceaseds' best friend who lived there since he was 7 years old.  I'm not saying it's ok for anyone to cross a RR track when the lights are flashing but it is an area where with no gates down and it is done all the time.  2 cars did make it across from word of mouth and the 3rd my dear friend didn't make it.  He actually was like a son to me and was best friends with my late son and another friend who like I said lived there since he was 7 until he moved away as an adult.  Bad judgement cost this father of 4 to lose his life.  He had no insurance and was between jobs.  What I and many have said long before this happened is that the train companies make millions to billions of dollars and certainly they could afford to put up gates at every single RR crossing everywhere.  I personally have seen freight trains come flying through at a high rate of speed with only flashing lights.  NO horns (in one particular area until train is at the crossing), no bells, only the flashing lights and some of these RR crossings are even at the top of small hills so close to another road where you turn left to get on the main road.  Daytime it is even hard to see those lights.  This is the case in many areas of IL  from Wilmington to Gibson City, IL.  No one knows why our friend went across but I still say regardless that every city, state and RR company should have safety in mind as a priority and make sure to install gates Nationwide.  Sadly is this decision not to have gates due to population per city? county?  I could have been a statistic one day near Melvin, IL where I turned left onto a slight hill which was only maybe 100 feet from the corner I turned from and didn't see the RR lights on until I was almost to the edge of the RR tracks.  I stopped in time thankfully because in what seemed like seconds a very fast moving frieght train came flying by and shook the car.  By the time the horn was blown the train was so close to the crossing that it wouldn't have given anyone a chance to make an adjustment.  I believe the conductors for the most part do their job and do it well but safety gates are vital.  God Bless Steven's 4 kids that now have no dad and they all lived for each other.  He was a great dad raising those kids himself.  No one can begin to figure out what exactly happened by this responsible dad.  But safety gates could have saved his life.

For whatever reason my son chose to try to beat the train doesn't matter. Fact is with high speed trains. THERE SHOULD BE GATES!!! He lived down the block. After getting the bag of things from the funeral home I was was at those tracks and a train was coming my windows were up and I barely heard the horns. THAT NEEDS GATES APARTMENT COMPLEX IS RIGHT ON THE CORNER