25 years later, Fox River Grove Metra-school bus crash still haunts engineer, other survivors

The engineer still dreams about it. The mom of one teenage victim drank for years to escape the pain. A survivor pulled through despite a fractured skull but lives in pain and lost years of his memory.

By Stefano Esposito Oct 23, 2020, 5:30am CDT

The dream that has visited Ford Dotson Jr. thousands of times always starts the same way. ... It’s a crisp October morning. Beneath clear skies, leaves shimmer copper, gold and red. ... It’s long before sunrise, and Dotson sets off from home. He’s happy anyway because there are no weekend shifts, no one bugging him to work holidays. He climbs into the cab of Metra’s Union Pacific Northwest Line train No. 624 heading to Chicago from Crystal Lake. At the end of the run, he’ll curl up on a cot for a few hours before making the return trip.

The 200-ton locomotive at the rear of the train pushes six passenger cars and the cab control car. It’s an express, and ahead the signals are green. So Dotson “jumps it up” to the maximum speed — 70 mph. He crosses the Fox River, which sparkles in the sunlight. ... In the distance, he sees a school bus. It’s moving slowly across the tracks, but there’s no reason to panic. Dotson nudges the brake handle — just in case — and blows the train whistle: two long blasts, a short, another long.

But something is wrong. The rear of the bus remains on the tracks. Dotson pumps several short blasts on the airhorn. He keeps at it because the bus isn’t moving. As the train hurtles forward, he slams the brake handle all the way. ... That’s the point in the dream when he always wakes up, shaking, just before the impact.

Twenty-five years ago Sunday, Ford Dotson Jr.’s train smashed into a school bus in Fox River Grove. It wasn’t any dream. Seven teenagers, all of them students at Cary-Grove High School, were killed: Jeffrey Clark, Stephanie Fulham, Susanna Guzman, Michael Hoffman, Joe Kalte, Shawn Robinson and Tiffany Schneider. The bus driver and 24 other passengers were injured. ... The images from that day will haunt Dotson forever.

{snip}

Fox River Grove train-school bus crash 25 years later: 'Just something we can't forget'

Christopher Placek
https://twitter.com/chrisplacek

Updated
10/24/2020 3:56 PM

Sunday marks 25 years since the tragic day a train slammed into a school bus in Fox River Grove, and many in this tight-knit community still can't pass the railroad tracks at Northwest Highway and Algonquin Road without remembering the students who died there. ... It's where a small group of loved ones gathers every year on this date to say a prayer for those they call the seven angels.

"Time has healed some wounds, but it's still difficult. Especially when we see each other and there's hugs going on," said Jim Kreher, who as deputy fire chief was the first to arrive at the crash scene shortly after 7:10 a.m. on Oct. 25, 1995. "We laugh and talk about life in general a little more, but it's still there. I can't imagine losing a kid like that."

Kreher, now the chief in the neighboring Barrington Countryside Fire Protection District, maintains a memorial garden at the site with the help of his wife. They often find flowers or mementos left at the foot of a stone carving that bears the names of the seven Cary-Grove High School students who never made it to school that day.

It's personal for Kreher and his brother Bob, the longtime Fox River Grove fire chief, who both grew up in town and never left.

{snip}