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September 22, 1999 11:28 AM, EDT

CHICAGO — The National Transportation Safety Board last week waded through conflicting testimony about crossing signals and the actions of truck driver John Stokes, who was at the wheel of the steel-laden tractor-trailer struck by an Amtrak passenger train March 15 in Bourbonnais, Ill.

The fate of Stokes, who some allege caused the crash by ignoring warning lights and gates at the grade crossing, and the outcome of numerous lawsuits hang on the board’s final determination of the causes of the crash that left 11 people dead in the train’s burning wreckage. The collision, which derailed the train, also injured 122 passengers and caused $14 million in property damage.

Investigators tried to work their way through a maze of missing witnesses and contradicting reports aired at the hearing Sept. 13-15, and it was not clear that they were any closer to the answers.

This much was clear: Stokes, a driver for Melco Transfer of Peotone, Ill., picked up a load of steel rods used to reinforce concrete from the Birmingham Steel plant in Bourbonnais. He left the plant and proceeded over a nearby rail crossing, where the trailer of the vehicle was struck in the rear by an Amtrak passenger train traveling 79 mph.

For the full story, see the Sept. 20 print edition of Transport Topics. .