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Woman Killed By Train in Roseland is Third Victim This Week

By Darryl Holliday | May 16, 2013 8:18pm
 Neighborhood residents fear for safety of students crossing tracks between closing school and welcoming school.
Woman is third person killed this week by train in Roseland
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ROSELAND — A woman was killed a block from her home when she was hit by a train Wednesday night, authorities said.

The woman was identified as Martha Gutierrez-Perez by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. She was pronounced dead at 6:46 p.m. at Stroger Hospital.

She was hit near 115th and State streets about 4:30 p.m., a block from her home on 116th Street. The woman was pushing a cart across the tracks when she was hit — the second time this week that a person was hit in that same part of the tracks, neighbors said. On Tuesday, 39-year-old Demetrius Jones was killed by a train near 114th and State. Eddie Campbell, 60, was struck and killed by a train at 116th and State on Sunday.

But worries extend even further, according to a Local School Council president at Curtis Elementary School. The council president said that if nearby Songhai Elementary Learning Institute closes, as proposed, students will be forced to cross the dangerous tracks on the way to Curtis, its welcoming school.

Both schools sit within two blocks of the tracks.

"Everybody comes through here," said Antwon Golatte, pointing at a walkway leading across the tracks, "If you're too close, the train will suck you right in — like when you're next to the "L" and you can feel the pull."

Golatte and other residents who live nearby could recount at least two other accidents in the last three years in which a person was caught under the train — in the most recent case, a man lost his legs, they said.

Gutierrez's cart could still be seen next to the tracks where she was hit. Friends said she could be seen frequently pushing her cart through the neighborhood.

Though declining to comment on the accident, the woman's brother agreed that children crossing the tracks from Songhai to Curtis could become an issue.

"There's nothing protecting it," he said.