Almost 70 Years Later, Crossing Claims Man

A man was killed by a train nearly 70 years after he survived a fatal crash of a train and school bus at the same crossing.

Herman Lorenz, 88, was struck Saturday by an Amtrak train in this Chicago suburb while walking home from the Northbrook Garage, a business started by his great-grandfather in 1843 as a blacksmith and wagon shop.

Witnesses told police that Lorenz went around the crossing gates and kept going after the train engineer sounded a warning horn.

Gerry Lorenz said his father often recounted an October 1926 crash at that crossing in which a train sliced through the school bus he was riding, killing two people, including Lorenz’s seatmate.