College President’s Son Third LFHS Student To Die On Metra/UPRR Rails This Year
(Lake Forest, Illinois – March 25, 2012)
For the third time this year, students at Chicago-suburb Lake Forest (IL) High School are mourning the train-related death of one of their peers, this time a popular senior and son of Lake Forest College President Stephen Schutt.
Union Pacific rails cut through the area near LFHS, and is a primarily unfenced/unguarded rail line with irregular public crossings. Besides UPRR freight trains, the line is one of the Metra Chicago area rail commute service’s highest train volume routes, and the mixture of the two has been deadly for many forced to cross paths with trains in the affluent suburb.
Edward Schutt’s body was found by police near Union Pacific rails Sunday morning after he had failed to return home Saturday night. Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey said the victim’s injuries were consistent with his having been struck by a train even though there was no report by any train crew of striking a pedestrian Saturday night or Sunday morning. However, a Metra locomotive engineer reported seeing the body by the tracks after daylight Sunday.
A Lake Forest High School sophomore died on the same train tracks January 9, and a freshman LFHS student was killed the morning of February 28. Both were on their way to school.
