Comment EI-3985
Received or sent (printed as 1/22/2008)
I attended the scoping meeting on January 9th, 2008, in Barrington. This is a new process for me, though the presence of rail traffic in my community is not. I grew up in a town with both freight and commuter trains. While we had some grade-level crossings to manage around, there were also underpasses, overpasses, above-grade segments, and below-grade segments that provided routing options for cars, trucks, buses, and emergency vehicles. While I understand that the overall impact on the Chicago area may be improved by this proposed purchase, if the plan goes forward without conditions, there are great health costs to be borne by Barrington area residents. My son suffers from nut allergies and asthma. When he inadvertently eats something with nuts in it, his throat begins to close down and he has great difficulty breathing. His physician has instructed us and his school to administer a dose of epinephrine, a synthetic form of adrenaline, as a shot known as an Epi-Pen." He is then to be driven to the nearest emergency room for follow-up care and observation. Secondary reactions are always a possibility, and are life-threatening. Both our home and my son's school are around 8 minutes from Good Shepherd Hospital, which recently expanded and improved its emergency department. Wait times for patients coming through the emergency room have been greatly reduced. If we have to get to the hospital when there is a train on the EJ&E line, our travel time increases dramatically. You probably know better than I how long it takes for a freight train to clear a crossing, and then add to that the time it takes for the built-up traffic to begin moving again. In the absence of any route to the hospital that avoids grade-level crossings, my son's health and perhaps his life would be greatly threatened. Fortunately, we have not had to race to the emergency room very often. But there are daily runs to homes, schools, businesses, and accident scenes that require ambulances and other emergency vehicles to be able to move quickly through traffic. With the proposed increase in rail traffic, and, again, without options to cross above or below grade-level, it is impossible for ambulances to either get to those needing transport or to the hospital as quickly as needed. And, as I know you're hearing from physicians and EMTs, every minute matters. Finally, as I'm sure you're also aware, the EJ&E crosses Main Street (Lake-Cook Road) just east of Barrington High School. Students are coming and going all day and into the evening, with the greatest concentrations being at the beginning and end of the school day. I wonder how long it will be before a late-running student attempts to beat a train by driving around the gate. I wonder whether they'll judge speed and distance accurately. I wonder whether the same gamble might be taken by students on foot. I wonder whether the presence of more trains increases the risk of despondent young people acting impulsively yet bringing permanent loss. We suffered the death of a local student to suicide on the local commuter line last month. My request is simple, though likely not easy to implement. Please do not leave so much of our community so thoroughly exposed to the hazards of increased traffic through grade-level crossings. I do not know what options/alternatives are even available, much less which of those are viable. But I do know that if this proposal goes through as planned, for anyone needing quick access to the scene of an emergency and/or the hospital, the only option is to sit and wait, and perhaps to die. Thank you for your consideration."
Submitted by: Donald L. Wink
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-35087/comment/EI-3985 · back to the docket sheet