Victim's mother files lawsuit against Metra

The mother of a 15-year-old boy killed at a railroad crossing in Fox River Grove last year filed suit against Metra on Tuesday, alleging the train company should have installed barricades across the pedestrian pathway he used.

Although there were street barricades that did function at the time of the accident, no pedestrian barricades were in place at the crossing on Oct. 25, 2006, the lawsuit said.

The crossing was the same location where seven children were killed when a bus got stuck on the tracks 11 years to the day before Justin Lee Glassmyer was killed.

The lawsuit alleged that the westbound train's visibility was reduced by both overgrown shrubbery and a shack. However, witness accounts presented at a coroner's inquest said Glassmyer wasn't even looking in the direction of the train that hit him when he crossed the tracks on his bicycle. Instead, they said, he was looking at an eastbound train that had just passed.

The suit also contends the train was going too fast for an area where Metra knew there were no pedestrian barricades. Witness testimony at the inquest showed the train was going 47 mph -- 3 mph less than the speed limit required.