Truck Driver's Attorney Says Man Didn't Try to Snake Through Crossing

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. (AP) — Three witnesses to the deadly Amtrak crash have given possibly conflicting statements about when warning signals and crossing gates activated at the crossing, a federal official said Monday.

Jamie Finch, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, would not go into detail about what the witnesses reported but said all three had different vantage points.

An attorney for the truck driver involved in the March 15 crash, which killed 11 people and injured more than 100, said his client did not attempt to go around downed crossing gates.

"Common sense tells me there is something wrong with that system of how those gates come down," said Leonard Sacks, attorney for John Stokes, 58. "There is no reason for him to go around

hem. It doesn't make any sense. And now we have more eyewitnesses and more corroboration of that."

Sacks said Stokes' view was impaired by two freight trains parked along the tracks before the Amtrak train plowed into his tractor-trailer, killing 11 people and injuring more than 100.

Nine people remain in critical condition.

Amtrak's chairman, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, last week said the engineer reported that the trucker tried to zigzag his tractor-trailer through the down crossing gates.

The train's engineer has been released from the hospital, but Finch said investigators plan to give him another two to three weeks to recuperate before conducting an interview.

Also Monday, a Chicago law firm filed lawsuits on behalf of one woman who died in the crash and four passengers who were injured.

All were traveling to Mississippi.

The lawsuit, which does not specify monetary damages, names as defendants Stokes, his employer — Melco Transfer Inc. — and Illinois Central Gulf Railway Inc.

A similar lawsuit was filed last week on behalf of a New Orleans couple. It also named Amtrak as a defendant.