Tomorrow's weather
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Cloudy and cooler
Online today
Check out this Web site to find out information about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's class of 1999.
Thursday March 18, 1999 Section: A Vol. 109 • No. 116
Sports today
http://www.rockhall.com
Scott Russell, Kansas weight thrower, continues to smash records and has his sights set on the 2000 Olympics.
WWW.KANSAN.COM
SEE PAGE 1B
Contact the Kansan
News: (785) 864-4810
Advertising: (785) 864-4358
Fax: (785) 864-0391
Opinion e-mail: opinion@kansan.com
Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com
Editor e-mail: editor@kansan.com
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Train crash cause investigated
（USPS 650-640）
Discrepancies exist in details of wreck
The Associated Press
BOURBONNAIS, III. — It is a railroad crossing that is supposed to be as safe as any in the country, one with modern crossing gates and flashing lights and three decades of relative peace.
Authorities insist those gates were down and the signal lights were flashing red when an Amtrak train slammed into a semitrailer loaded with steel Monday night in the nation's deadliest railroad accident since 1983.
At least 11 people were killed and more than 100 injured.
Federal investigators were hoping the engineer and the truck driver would be able to explain why the truck was straddling the tracks.
"There have been reports that possibly this truck went around the gates, and we are trying to determine if that's what happened," John Goglia of the National Transportation Safety Board said late Tuesday. "We will pursue this with vigor to determine if this is a signal problem or if in fact we have a driver problem."
There were 217 people on board the "City of New Orleans" when it crashed Monday night at a rural crossing 50 miles south of Chicago. At least three people were still missing and feared dead in the scorched and twisted wreckage.
Truck driver John Stokes, 58, told investigators that he didn't see the train approach and that the warning lights started flashing after he started across the tracks near a Birmingham Steel Co. mill.
Stokes was driving on a probationary license after receiving three speed
ing tickets in a year, authorities said.
Amtrak's chairman, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, said Stokes was trying to dodge the crossing gates, thinking the oncoming train was a slow-moving freight train instead of a faster passenger train.
"The engineer said he saw the lights flashing, he saw the barriers down and then he saw the truck stop and try to get around it," Thompson said. "There was no way to avoid it."
Here are the key terms.
Both Stokes and the engineer were
questioned Tuesday, but investigators said the engineer was taking medication as a result of the crash and had trouble answering questions.
The two-locomotive train pulling 14 cars smashed into the truck and then into two rail cars on a siding. The cars jackknifed and piled up behind the locomotives more than a quarter-mile, with leaked diesel fuel erupting in flames.
Those killed were in a double-decker sleeping car. Authorities said a locomotive ripped into the car
crushing some passengers and setting the car ablaze.
Goglia, who is in charge of the NTSB investigation, said the black box in the lead locomotive showed the train was moving at 79 mph — the legal maximum — just before the crash. He also said the engineer was blowing his whistle and trying to stop the train.
Wreck could affect student travel
See ELEVEN on page 2A
By Ezrat Sykes
asykes@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Following Monday's train wreck, spring break plans were questionable for David Leigh and his three roommates, who were planning a trip to New Orleans, via Amtrak.
Leigh, Fort Scott freshman,
said that after considering traveling by plane, train or automobile, they had chosen train travel because it was affordable and because his three roommates had never used it before.
Tuesday, after hearing about the accident, Leigh said one of his roommates called an Amtrak office.
The group bought tickets in early February.
The group is scheduled to
"They said that they were seeing how they could handle the situation and told us to call back on Friday," Leigh said.
depart Saturday from Carbon-dale, Ill; however, if they couldn't take a train, they would drive. Leigh said.
But the group may be in luck. Steven Taub, media spokesperson for Amtrack, said that another train from New Orleans went through the accident area yesterday and that the track would be open for future travel.
Leigh said that despite the accident he and his roommates weren't apprehensive about traveling by train.
"It's a lot safer than a car," he
saiid. *There are a lot more car
aid. *There are train more cars*
But the accident did leave a disturbing question in the roommates' minds.
"If spring break were a few days earlier, we could have been on that train," said Leigh, explaining how their train trip follows the same route on which the accident occurred. "We felt kind of strange about that."
Melissa Leon, Chesterfield,
Mo., freshman, has used Amtrak
trains twice before and plans on
going home to St. Louis for
spring break on the train.
After hearing about the accident, Leon was a little nervous.
"At first I really did not want to get on a train again." she said.
to get on a train again," she said.
But now, Leon isn't so worried about her trip.
"It doesn't happen that often," she said. "I'm still going to get on the train. Besides, I have no other way to get home."
— Edited by Keith Burner
Chancellor's daily work more than a desk job
In Chancellor Robert Hemenway's office, the computer sits dark and silent for most of the day. The phone rings only rarely, and the traffic in and out is minimal.
By Kristi Reimer
kreimer @kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
But just because it's quiet doesn't mean things aren't happening. The difference between this office of tightly controlled activity and many others is that technology doesn't rule, people do.
Face-to-face interaction is the key element in the decisions that are made from before the sun comes up until, many days, long after it goes down.
"It can be fatiguing and it can be high-pressure," Hemenway said. He described Monday as a typical day, but said typical should not be confused with uneventful.
"You have to make decisions rapidly and with confidence, and the stakes are high," he said. "What we do here impacts lives. It's challenging, but I think most
"What a game," said Mary Burg, executive assistant to the chancellor, as she walked in for an 8 a.m. meeting with Hemenway and Theresa Klinkenberg, director of administration.
The Chancellor of the University of Kansas, Robert Hemenway, makes a important point to the students seated in his living room. Photo by Erin McElinney/KANSAN
On Monday morning Hemenway was running late because the University jet that carried him to and from New Orleans for the NCAA tournament Sunday didn't land in Lawrence until midnight. A late arrival for Hemenway is 7:45 a.m.; his day usually begins around 7.
The item on most people's minds in the Chancellor's Office Monday seemed to be the Kansas men's basketball team's overtime loss to the University of Kentucky the night before.
The three had gathered to discuss the agenda for today's Board of Regents meeting, but first they had to
people would consider it an exciting job."
and Madison Self at the same time as a Regents planning meeting at Washburn University — and familiarize themselves with items affecting the University.
"I have to deal with the folders in that outbox," Burg said with a little trepidation as she watched the pile grow. "That's not too bad, but I'm sure there will be more."
Hemenway,
Klinkenberg and
Burg worked
through
the
Regents agenda
step-by-step
to resolve scheduling
conflicts — a dinner with fellowship donors Lila
rehash the highlights of the game as Hemenway unloaded the work he had taken along to New Orleans.
hemenway, who described his position as CEO of the University, said there were a lot of similarities
Sgt. Steve Jenson of the Kansas Highway Patrol picks up a 40-pound dummy after it was thrown out of a simulator machine. The rollover simulator vehicle, which was used to demonstrate seat-belt effectiveness, is designed to simulate a 20-mph car crash. The demonstrations were held yesterday outside Wescoe Hall. Photo by Ruben Noguera / KANSAN
Irish blues
See SCHEDULE on page 6A
Employees and friends of The Sandbar, 117 E. Eight St., dance on the bar's float in the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Lawrence. The Sandbar won the float contest yesterday in the commercial division of the parade. The float featured characters such as Jimmy Buffett and the Blues Brothers. It was preceded by the KU Bar Band and followed by dancers dressed in Hawaiian costume. Photo by Angie Kuhn/KANSAN
Dummy used to encourage seat belt usage
By T.J. Johnson
fjohnson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
similar volunteer?"" Jensen asked.
Sgt. Steve Jensen, of the Kansas Highway Patrol, joked with the crowd of students who gathered around the patrol's rollover simulator vehicle yesterday at Wescroe Beach.
"Any volunteers? Jensen asked.
He ran the simulator once with a 60-pound dummy strapped into the seat belt inside and the machine simulated a 20- mph rollover crash.
"It really made me think, because I was in a wreck not too long ago, and people drive while they are tired or talking on the phone, and people take it for granted. People can get killed," said Samaunha Billinsvelv, Overland Park sophomore.
Next, Jensen ran the simulator with the dummy unbuckled. This time, the dummy's torso went out the driver's-side window and smashed into the ground, eventually pulling the entire dummy out onto the concrete as students looked on in surprise.
With its seat belt in place, the only portion of the dummy that left the cab of the simulator's pickup was its arm.
Jensen said that in a real crash, the pickup would have continued to roll, crushing the driver.
The demonstration was offered to raise awareness of the importance of wearing seat belts.
"This shows students what wearing seat belts can do for you in a rollover, and what not wearing seat belts can do," said Sgt. Troy Mailen of the KU Public Safety Office.
Jeff Weinberg, assistant to the Chancellor, signed a certificate of intent pledging the University's support efforts to increase seat belt use.
The certificate read: "This document certifies that the University of Kansas Police Department recognizes that safety belts and child safety seats are the most effective means of reducing fatalities and serious injuries from motor vehicle crashes. Hereby, the undersigned pledges to promote and support the use of safety belts and child safety seats, making unbuckled unacceptable."
Mickey DeHook, Kansas Law Enforcement liaison on occupant protection, said that the certificate was an important way for the University to support usage of safety belts.
"It's important because it supports not only law enforcement's efforts, but it also sends the signal out to people that the University of Kansas supports the use of safety belts," DeHook said.
He said that many people still thought it was a matter of personal choice to wear a seat belt.
"It's just the right thing to do." DeHook said. "Everyone pays for people that aren't buckled up when they're involved in a crash through higher taxes, higher health care and higher insurance costs."
He said that there were still many people who need to be convinced to change their attitudes and wear their seat belts.
"Kansas has a 59 percent safety belt compliance rate and the national average is 69 percent, so we have a lot of work to do." DeHook said. "If we can change attitudes and get people to buckle up, we can reduce traffic fatalities."
— Edited by Aerica Veozey