Driver Had Stopped Properly Before Fatal Crash

A substitute school bus driver’s unfamiliarity with her route was partially responsible for a collision with a Chicago commuter train last year that killed seven children, the National Transportation Board said Wednesday.

In its preliminary report on the Fox River Grove, Ill., accident, the NTSB said the driver, Patricia Catencamp, had properly stopped before crossing the railroad tracks Oct. 25, 1995 on her way to Cary-Grove High School.

Even as the train approached, warning signals at the crossing had not yet activated. So Catencamp, who survived the crash, pulled across the tracks and waited for a red light to change, unaware that the rear of the bus was still in the train’s path, the investigators concluded.