BY MIKE CETERA
The death over the weekend of 42-year-old Piedad Kinshasa of Aurora after her vehicle was struck by a train marks the second fatal crash in three months in the Fox Valley.
Still, 10-year trends show fatal train accidents involving pedestrians or vehicles are exceptionally rare.
Federal Railroad Administration data shows that 32 people were killed in train accidents or incidents through August in Illinois. During that same period, the FRA said there were 139 train accidents in the state.
The number of accidents and deaths has remained relatively stable during the last decade. The greatest number of fatalities since 1998 occurred in 1999 when 70 people were killed.
Data further shows that a majority of highway-rail crossing incidents are non-fatal. And if I'm reading this correctly, people disregarding or missing crossing signals is not the major cause of accidents in Illinois.
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