UTU News Digest - Monday, July 26, 1999

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Monday, July 26, 1999

ILLINOIS: 100 uniformed Metra employees honor Hooten

CHICAGO -- As Chicago police detectives continued to hunt for the two men who killed Metra conductor and UTU member Wilbert Hooten on a train last weekend, more than 100 uniformed Metra employees and other mourners turned out Saturday for his funeral in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood.

Hooten, a 64-year-old grandfather and jazz disc jockey, was a month away from retirement when two men in their mid-20s shot him in the face on the evening of July 17 in an apparent robbery attempt. The attackers jumped out an open door as the northbound train pulled away from the 121st Street and Racine Avenue stop on the Blue Island branch of Metra's Electric line.

Investigators face a dearth of physical evidence and a paltry list of witnesses, said Calumet Area Sgt. Stan Salabura. Only one passenger was riding the two-car train, he said, and the one other Metra employee to see the offenders got only a passing glance over his shoulder.

"We'll we go back and review what we have, recanvass the neighborhood and hopefully somebody will come forward with some new information," Salabura said.

The Illinois State Police crime lab was processing physical evidence found at the scene, including fingerprints believed to have been left by the killers.

As the investigation continued, scores of uniformed conductors and ticket-takers attended Hooten's funeral. They streamed past his casket, which was guarded by two solemn Metra trainmen.

"He was an inspiration to us all," said one Metra employee, who asked not to be identified. "Conductors and trainmen like to gossip--dynamiting, they call it. And nobody ever had anything bad to say about Wilbert."

In a special ceremony dating back to the origins of the American railroad labor movement, each of the employees placed an evergreen sprig--a symbol of everlasting life--beside the casket.

"When you worked with `Hoot,' you knew what to expect," eulogized Don Schweiger, president of Local 1290 of the United Transportation Union. "He was a gentleman, always had a smile. He was a jovial man, always asking how you were doing.

"When you're a railroader, you become a part of a special family. Brother Hooten was a member of our family. He will be missed."

CALIFORNIA: Union-Pacific train derails forcing evacuation

PALM SPRINGS -- A Union Pacific train derailed while traveling from Los Angeles to Tucson, Ariz., knocking 11 cars onto their sides and forcing the evacuation of a nearby commercial gym.

No one was injured in Saturday's derailment and the tracks were expected to be clear by Sunday night, Riverside County sheriff's Deputy Lisa McConnell said.

The train was hauling 122 cars, including one car full of chromium trioxide, a highly combustible substance when mixed with water and toxic if inhaled. That car, however, remained on the tracks, McConnell said.

TEXAS: Railroad murderer pleads innocent in court

HOUSTON -- A Mexican national suspected of killing nine people while crisscrossing the United States on freight trains pleaded not guilty in a Texas state court Friday to capital murder in the death of a Houston woman.

Angel Maturino Resendiz, 39, entered the plea through his court-appointed attorney a day after a grand jury indicted him in the murder of Dr. Claudia Benton.

Assistant District Attorney Devon Anderson said Maturino Resendiz broke into Benton's home last December, sexually assaulted the 39-year-old mother of twin daughters, and killed her by stabbing her with a knife and beating her over the head with a small statue.

A slightly built figure dressed in an orange prison jump suit, Maturino Resendiz nodded when Judge Bill Harmon asked if he understood he could face the death penalty.

Maturino Resendiz has been charged with two murders in Texas, two in Illinois and one in Kentucky and has also been officially named as a suspect in four more Texas murders.

Friday's five-minute court appearance was his first arraignment on a murder charge.

Judge Harmon ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether the defendant was sane and competent to stand trial.

Anderson told reporters the issue of his sanity boiled down to the simple question of whether he knew right from wrong.

"I just know that there are some people who like to kill, like to hurt people, and I don't think that necessarily means they're insane," she said.

Anderson said Harris County District Attorney John Holmes had not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty, though the defendant's attorneys are concerned about that prospect.

Texas executes more convicted criminals than any other U.S. state and Harris County, whose territory includes the city of Houston, accounts for one third of all Texas death sentences.

Defense attorney Allen Tanner declined to elaborate on the not-guilty plea or discuss his defense strategy. He said he was hoping that Mexican diplomats would intervene in an effort to save his client's life.

"I'm hoping that the Mexican Consulate convinces them not to seek the death penalty in this case," he told reporters.

Appeals by Mexico and other countries to spare the lives of their nationals sentenced to death in Texas have had little effect in the past. A Canadian national was executed by lethal injection in Texas last month despite diplomatic appeals.

Tanner said Maturino Resendiz, who is being held in an isolation cell, was depressed but declined to say whether this was because of his own predicament or remorse.

Maturino Resendiz was dubbed the "railroad killer" because his alleged murders took place near railroads and authorities believed he was traveling around the country on freight trains.

He was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list and the target of an international manhunt until he surrendered to police in El Paso, Texas, on July 13 in a deal brokered by his family.

Tanner, himself a former Harris County prosecutor, said Maturino Resendiz had not expected to face the death penalty in Texas because he had understood he would be treated "humanely."

Maturino Resendiz is tentatively scheduled to stand trial in the Benton murder next Feb. 14.

Prosecutors say they have a strong case against him based on fingerprints, DNA evidence and property stolen from the victim and later recovered from his common-law wife's home in Mexico.

Evidence from some of the other murder cases is expected to be introduced in the punishment phase of the Benton case.

WASHINGTON: Sea-Land sale puts CSX back on track

WASHINGTON -- The sale of Sea-Land's international container business largely puts CSX Corp. back where it was in 1986 -- as a railroad -- before it acquired the liner company, the Journal of Commerce reported today.

Once the sale is done, CSX's railroad and intermodal business will generate about 80% of corporate revenue, exceeding $7.5 billion on an annualized basis.

At the height of its corporate acquisition binge, railroading provided less than half of the corporation's revenue. A series of asset sales since the early 1990s restored the railroad to increasing prominence at the Richmond, Va., corporation.

The sale also frees CSX management to concentrate on building revenue and cutting costs tied to their purchase of Conrail Inc. lines on June 1.

CSX Chairman John W. Snow and new CSX Transportation President Ron Conway drove home their commitment to attain those results as the company released second-quarter financial results last week.

The long-term goal of $410 million in added profit still is attainable, Conway said. That total was identified in the railroad 's Conrail acquisition application that was filed more than two years ago.

Though Snow and Conway said operational problems during June have been overcome, CSX spent $69 million in the second quarter on integration-related expense.

Conway said the railroad had hoped to capture $77 million in productivity savings during the first half, but fell short with $54 million in operational savings.

Aden Adams, CSXT's senior vice president of marketing, and CSX Intermodal President Les Passa identified specific new business from the Conrail transaction.

Adams said the Conrail purchase produced more than 3,000 loads of scrap traffic from New Jersey to the Southeast. Passa touted incremental intermodal business from Southern points to New England as a result of the company's first single-line rail link between those regions.

Key customers also are returning, CSX officials said.

United Parcel Service is putting traffic back on CSX, Conway said. UPS last month moved more than 50% of its intermodal business away from Norfolk Southern and CSX at the height of service troubles.

CSX also is targeting $123 million in cost cutting this year, including $65 million in general administrative expenses from staffing reductions. The company also expects to save nearly $40 million from reduced freight car rentals and more efficient transportation operations.

While CSX is claiming success in overcoming problems during June, the railroad 's second-quarter results were well below the prior year as operating income slipped 28%, to $208 million. A $10 million jump in intermodal operating profit brought total operating income to $224 million, nearly 25% lower than last year.

WASHINGTON: U.S. announces funding for grade crossing hazard elimination

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater Friday announced financial assistance grants totaling $6.95 million to eight federally-designated high-speed rail corridors to eliminate hazards at public and private highway-rail grade crossings.

"President Clinton and Vice President Gore launched a comprehensive livability agenda to strengthen the federal government's role as a partner in helping communities across America grow in ways that ensure a high quality of life and strong, sustainable economic growth," Secretary Slater said. "These grants will facilitate the coming of high-speed rail and improve safety, which is President Clinton's highest transportation priority, by helping to remove hazards at highway-rail crossings."

All public and private highway-rail grade crossings in designated corridors are eligible for funding which may be spent on crossing closure; consolidation or grade separation; installation or upgrade of warning devices; improvements to track circuitry, crossing surfaces, crossing sight distances or illumination; installation of advanced train control or traffic control systems; and other related project development, analysis and engineering activities. The federal share of costs for improvements funded under the hazard elimination program may be up to 100 percent of the total engineering and construction costs.

Fiscal 1999 apportionments to the eight designated corridors are as follows:

• California Corridor: California, $250,000
• Pacific Northwest Corridor:

Oregon, $400,000
Washington, $500,000

• Chicago Hub Corridor:

Illinois, $350,000
Indiana, $200,000
Michigan, $500,000
Wisconsin, $500,000

• Florida Corridor: Florida, $300,000.
• Southeast Corridor:

North Carolina, $1,000,000
South Carolina, $150,000
Georgia, $250,000
Virginia, $500,000

• Gulf Coast Corridor:

Louisiana, $325,000
Alabama, $345,000
Mississippi, $355,000
Texas, $125,000

• Keystone Corridor: Pennsylvania, $500,000
• The Empire Corridor: New York, $400,000

The funds will be used with other federal and state grade crossing funding to accelerate the implementation of high-speed rail in designated high-speed rail corridors. A Federal Register Notice on Dec. 11, 1998 solicited applications from states, either singly or in conjunction with other states, for funding projects in the above corridors.

"The hazard elimination program is key to making high-speed rail successful in the United States," Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene M. Molitoris said. "This program also will significantly improve the safety of both rail and highway users in each corridor where improvements are being made."

"This money is important toward eliminating safety hazards and continuing the reduction of highway-rail crossing fatalities," said Federal Highway Administrator Kenneth R. Wykle. "We have successfully reduced highway-rail grade crossings fatalities by two-thirds since 1973 and are committed to reducing them even further."

Since the enactment of the Highway-Railroad Grade Crossing Program in 1973, highway-rail grade crossing fatalities have declined at public crossings from 1,185 in 1973 to 385 in 1998, representing a 67.5 percent decline in fatalities since the program began.

Winnipeg Senior killed crossing tracks

An elderly Winnipeg man who loved the freedom a motorized wheelchair provided died early yesterday in a crash with a CN Railway freight train.

Ivan Peterson, 70, was struck just after midnight while crossing the tracks in his wheelchair at Waverley Street and Taylor Avenue.

Police say the rail crossing arms were down, the lights were activated and an audible alarm was sounding as the train reversed eastbound along the tracks.

But Peterson crossed anyway and was hit by the caboose, despite frantic efforts by the engineer to stop.

"The occupants of the train signaled the engineer to stop, but by the time that was accomplished the wheelchair had been struck," said Const. Bob Johnson.