Aaron Pittman-Teague died after being struck by a Canadian National train while plowing snow just north of Danforth, Illinois on Jan. 6, 2025. 

There were no lights, no crossing arms and no bells to warn him of the oncoming train, travelling north at 55 miles per hour in the middle of a winter storm.

The grade crossing where the railroad and roadway were at the same level only had crossbuck signs, according to a civil suit filed by his family in Iroquois County Circuit Court.

Crossbucks are a kind of passive warning device consisting of a cross-shaped street sign.

The crossing at County Road 2300 N and U.S. Route 45 in Iroquois County has had a history of accidents, including one fatality in 1969 and two accidents in 2011 and 2012, according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s database on accidents.

It was marked in 2013 to be improved under a safety improvement program, but the project didn’t receive an official agreement until over a decade later in 2024. New gates were installed in April 2025 — three months after Pittman-Teague’s death, according to Cayli Baker, the director of communications at the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC).

The project to install gates and flashing lights was one of hundreds of improvements included in the Crossing Safety Improvement Program, an annual five-year plan published by the Illinois Commerce Commission outlining proposed improvements to highway-grade railway crossings.

State records show Illinois has the second-highest number of public at-grade railway crossings in the country, and about one in four of those 7,773 crossings, about 2,000, are equipped with crossbucks as the only warning device. 

Many have been approved for construction of additional devices, but improvements can take years to be implemented — like the one in Iroquois County.

“Crossings where there’s just no lights and gates, we refer to them as passive crossings,” Aisha Jackson, state coordinator of rail safety education nonprofit Operation Lifesaver Illinois, said in an interview with CU-CitizenAccess. “At passive crossings … the responsibility is on the pedestrians and the motorists to identify the signs.”

Illinois had the third-highest number of railway crossing fatalities in 2024 according to Operation Lifesaver, but Jackson said most of those fatalities occur at active crossings.

Most railway deaths in the U.S. are cases of trespass or suicide — 45 out of 50 deaths in Illinois so far this year came as a result of trespassing. But incidents like Pittman-Teague’s death highlight the potential dangers of passive crossings. 

Pittman-Teague’s widow, Melissa Grimes, filed the wrongful death suit against Canadian National Transportation (USA) Limited, Illinois Central Railroad Company, the train conductor and the train engineer.

Her lawyer, Mike Grieco, said the crossing where he was hit should have been upgraded years ago.

“What’s most disappointing, frustrating and really one of the theories of the case is that this was a $300,000 investment for public safety that has been known for 10 plus years, that was not made or done in a timely fashion by Canadian National Rail, until, of course, Mr. Teague had to die,” Grieco said in an interview.

The improvement program plan for 2026-2030 lists hundreds of crossings with proposed improvements and estimated budgets for each one. Improvements include adding devices like gates or lights, modifying existing signals and improving crossing surfaces. Most of the crossings identified are grade crossings.

The commission’s grade crossing map lists 549 crossing under the latest improvement plan. Crossings in need of improvements can be identified by ICC staff or through applications from highway agencies, communities and railroads.

“The ICC prioritizes projects based on several factors including, safety of the existing crossing, collision history, traffic volume, engineering requirements, passenger lines, project readiness, available funding, and location,” Baker said in an email.

Project timelines also depend heavily on land acquisition, environmental reviews, supply chains, available resources or engineering complexities, Baker said. 

While the crossing where Pittman-Teague died has since been improved, hundreds more still have minimal warning devices. Grieco said he hopes the lawsuit will incentivize the railway companies to improve crossings faster.

“I would bet you that had there not been a lawsuit at this crossing guard or related to this case in this particular crossing gate, that electric gate wouldn’t have gone up in three months. It would have taken another three years,” he said.