Although investigators found that John Stokes did not drive around lowered gates at McKnight Road Crossing in Bourbonnais, IL, he still faces prison for logbook and hours-of-service violations.
The March 15, 1999, crash between Stokes' rig and Amtrak's City of New Orleans train injured more than 100 and killed 11 passengers. The investigation report shows the warning lights and signals at the gates malfunctioned.
As a result of the investigation report findings, prosecutors did not proceed with reckless homicide charges against Stokes, 60, of Manteno, IL. Instead, the state's attorney general indicted Stokes in October on one count of willful violation of maximum driving time and one count of willful violation of driver's record of duty status. Although the violations are not related to the crash, Stokes still faces a prison sentence. Illinois classifies logbook and hours-of-service violations as Class 4 felonies with a possible sentence of one to three years in prison for each count.
Because the indictment does not specify the dates and times of the actual violations, Stokes' attorney Leonard Sacks filed a motion requesting a bill of particulars, which would require the prosecution to specify dates and periods of time covered by the alleged violations. The prosecution objected to the request, saying the dates and periods of time are available in the discovery material already provided to Sacks.
"That's 50 pounds of papers," Sacks said referring to the discovery material. "Ninety-five percent of it is unrelated to the specific charges. It would take me two years to go through all this paperwork."
On Nov. 7, 2001, the court granted Sacks' request for the specific dates and time periods covered by the alleged violations. Additionally, the court postponed Stokes' trial until Jan. 17, 2002, to give the defense attorney time to review these dates once provided by the prosecution.
Sacks also had requested an expansion of Stokes' bond restrictions so the truckdriver could leave the state to haul loads back and forth between Illinois and Missouri. The court denied the request.
