‘A perfect storm of problems’: Feds dig into gate flaw and crew fatigue in deadly Elgin train crash

Issues involving crew fatigue and performance, along with warning signal flaws, are surfacing as federal authorities continue to probe a fatal freight train crash in Elgin last fall.

The driver of a landscaping truck was killed and his two passengers seriously injured when it collided with a Union Pacific Railroad locomotive at 6:29 a.m. Oct. 23, 2025, at the State Street crossing.

A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report states that warning devices activated when the train was near the edge of the crossing and that the truck entered immediately before the crash.

A subsequent Federal Railway Administration Safety Bulletin offered additional details indicating the driver did not have time to react before it was too late.

The gates and flashing lights “were not activated when the truck proceeded onto the crossing where it was hit by a six-axle light locomotive,” officials found.

The FRA also said the locomotive’s engineer and conductor may not have used proper procedures for short trains. The locomotive was not hauling any railcars when the crash occurred.

“Preliminary information indicates the train crew did not follow required operating rules for traversing highway-rail grade crossings when operating equipment without the minimum number of axles needed to reliably activate grade crossing warning systems,” the FRA found.

The NTSB is still investigating the crash, which took the life of 56-year-old Round Lake Beach resident Martin Martinez Jimenez, and has not yet issued a final report.

But crew members told NTSB they were both fatigued prior to the collision, which occurred near the end of their shift, recently posted documents show.

“I was fighting it. You know, I … I’ll admit it,” the engineer told investigators. “I was fighting sleep.”

The crew’s shift had started at 8 p.m. Oct. 22, 2025, more than 10 hours before the fatal collision.

Asked about the findings, UP said in a statement that “this was a tragic accident, and we extend our deepest sympathies to those impacted.

“We continue to work with the NTSB on the investigation to make sure we learn from it, ensuring this doesn’t happen again. The employees involved met federal work-rest requirements.”

Railway expert and DePaul University Professor Joseph Schwieterman noted that “when a motorist sees gates that aren’t lowered, they naturally assume it is safe to proceed.”

“Unfortunately, the truck driver lost his life due to a perfect storm of problems.”

Grade crossing warning devices fail for different reasons, the FRA said, including “loss of shunt,” meaning the locomotive or railcar wheels don’t trip the electrical system that activates the gates and lights.

Contributing factors to that could be a low number of axles, like with a solo locomotive, contaminants on the rails, or rust and other conditions that cause poor wheel-to-rail connections, according to the bulletin.

The FRA asked railroads to remind employees about the “critical importance of following operating rules and maintenance plans relating to loss of shunt,” and safeguards such as lowering speeds near crossings.

As part of the probe, investigators took samples of an unidentified coating on the rails near the crash and submitted it for analysis.

Authorities also reviewed a year’s worth of event recorder data for the crossing and identified “multiple instances of short warning times (and) short or aborted warning activations.”

The train crew described long shifts and stressful working conditions to NTSB officials, who also focused on the fact the locomotive wasn’t hauling any train cars on its last trip from West Chicago to Belvidere.

“When you all found out that you all were going back light power, did you all have any job briefings about … anything you needed to change?” an investigator asked the conductor.

“No sir,” replied the conductor, who recalled being “exhausted,” and couldn’t exactly recall if the gates and lights were activated at State Street.

The engineer recounted “it was starting to wear down on me. (We) came around up to State Street and we go around a corner going north.”

“So I thought that the gates were down and this guy came out of nowhere, and there it was.”

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