​​ This information is preliminary and subject to change.

​On October 23, about 6:30 a.m., a motorist was fatally injured when a single northbound Union Pacific Railroad (UP) locomotive operating as train MBEBE-22 struck a southbound highway vehicle at the South State Street highway–railroad grade crossing on the UP Belvidere Subdivision in Elgin, Illinois (see figure).[1]​ The highway vehicle was a Ford F-250 pickup truck with three occupants (a driver and two passengers) and a trailer. The truck and trailer were owned by Cornerstone Partners, a landscaping company. The driver died and both passengers were transported to hospitals with injuries. No other injuries were reported. Visibility conditions at the time of the accident were dark and clear; the weather was 38°F with no precipitation.

​The crossing involved in this accident (US Department of Transportation Crossing Inventory Number 174504F) was equipped with active warning devices (flashing lights, bells, and gates) on the highway approaches from both directions. The two-lane highway and single main track intersected at a 35° angle. Vegetation near the crossing included trees and brush. The tracks on the northbound approach curved to the left through the crossing, and rail traffic in the area operated within a 30-mph permanent speed restriction.

At the time of the accident, train MBEBE-22 was returning to UP’s Belvidere Yard in Belvidere, Illinois, after completing work in UP’s Proviso Yard and West Chicago Yard. The crew, a conductor and an engineer, had been on duty since 8:00 p.m. the previous day. Based on event recorder data, the train approached the crossing traveling about 27 mph. A review of the locomotive’s outward-facing image recorder showed highway traffic traversing the crossing in the seconds before the collision. The event and image recorders showed that the train’s whistle sounded for the first time and the crossing’s warning devices activated when the train was near the edge of the crossing.[2] The truck entered the crossing from the train’s right immediately before the collision and was struck while in motion. The train engineer applied the brakes shortly after impact and brought the train to a stop north of the crossing.

While on-scene, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) examined the locomotive and track, examined and tested the grade crossing warning system, recovered data from the locomotive’s event and image recorders and the crossing’s diagnostic log, collected samples of foreign material from the rails near the accident scene, conducted reenactments of the train’s movement through the crossing, made sight distance observations, reviewed UP’s relevant rules and procedures, and completed interviews.

The investigation is ongoing. Future investigative activity will focus on UP’s operating rules, policies, and training along with the performance of the train detection technology used by the highway–railroad grade crossing’s warning systems.

Parties to the investigation include:

• the Federal Railroad Administration, 
• Illinois Commerce Commission, 
• UP, 
• Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers—Transportation Division.