Train-riding police nab crossing scofflaws

A flash of dark blue, and the pedestrian was across the tracks.

The pedestrian was safe from an oncoming Metra train but not from police officers on the train who witnessed the mad dash and gave a description of the scofflaw to officers waiting outside Wednesday morning.

Local police, Metra and BNSF Railway authorities were still tallying results from a day's worth of observing rail crossing violations Wednesday but confirmed there were multiple offenders.

The exercise included 13 police departments plus Cook, DuPage and Kane sheriff's police who watched for pedestrians and drivers ignoring lowered gates and flashing signals on the BNSF tracks.

Starting in Aurora at 7:30 a.m., officers rode in trains until 4 p.m. and communicated with police watching crossings.

Metra spokeswoman Meg Thomas-Reile said she observed at least three close calls, including one in Riverside where a person dressed in dark blue or black barely made it.

"This happens daily," Thomas-Reile said. "Every day people push it and sometimes they push way farther than anyone would think reasonable, especially on a line like the BNSF where you have freight trains. "Some cars just squeaked through." According to the Illinois Commerce Commission's Operation Lifesaver, there were 134 crashes at public railroad crossings that killed 24 people in 2014 and injured 55.

The event allowed police to ride in the cab and "gain insight into crossing violations by observing them from the engineer's perspective," Thomas-Reile said.