About a month ago, attorney Bob Hanaford went through an old storage unit he had in Fox River Grove and cleaned out thousands of reports, newspaper clippings and exhibits he had from representing seven teen survivors in years-long lawsuits from the fatal train and bus crash that happened in 1995.

[ See more photos: Remembering the Fox River Grove bus-train crash 30 years later ]

Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the day a Metra express train struck a school bus in the heart of the village, killing seven teens and injuring many more – devastating the tight-knit community and thrusting it into the national spotlight.

[ See the Northwest Herald's coverage from the day of the crash ]

Hanaford, who was also Fox River Grove trustee at the time, saw the scene about a half-hour after the crash, in what he described looks like “a battlefield.”

“I think about this case at some point probably every day,” he said.

The crash occurred when a substitute school bus driver crossed the rail line at Algonquin Road and Northwest Highway but had to stop for a red light a short distance beyond, apparently not realizing more than 3 feet of the rear of the bus had not cleared the tracks. The Metra train, going at least 60 mph, slammed into the back of the bus, spinning the body off its chassis.

The seven Cary-Grove High School students who died were Jeffrey Clark, 16; Stephanie Fulham, 15; Susanna Guzman, 18; Michael Hoffman, 14; Joe Kalte, 16; Shawn Robinson, 14; and Tiffany Schneider, 15. All but four of the 35 students on the bus were injured.

Hanaford and other attorneys helped secure some $27 million in settlements that led to rail crossing safety changes. That included placing traffic lights before railroad tracks, adding more markers and signs and improving interconnections between rail and traffic signals to give vehicles more time to clear the tracks when a train is approaching.

Though there were “multiple failures” that day, Hanaford said, but he said one of the biggest was faulty sequencing between traffic and railroad lights, Hanaford said.

Hanaford, now based in Naples, Florida, and still a practicing attorney, said at the time he was being considered for a job as general counsel for Illinois State Police. But once the crash happened, he stayed in private practice to take on those families’ cases.

“Would I do it again? I probably would. I was out over half-a-million dollars in expenses, and it had its effect on certainly my mental health, I think, to a large extent,” he said. “I don’t want to ever make this thing about me because I was honored to represent these people.”

A student survivor

Jason Kedrok was a 15-year-old sophomore seated just a couple of rows in front of where the bus was struck by the train.

Thirty years later, he works as a training captain at the Fox River Grove Fire Protection District part-time and as a firefighter full-time at the Arlington Heights department. Both stations sit near train tracks, and Kedrok still gets chills sometimes when he hears the train horns.

“It actually never goes away,” he said.

Kedrok was already a Fox River Grove fire department cadet at the time of the crash. Now, he also runs his own business with his wife of repairing fire apparatuses throughout Lake and McHenry counties.

He also teaches fire service classes at McHenry County College. From time to time, he’ll see the crash referenced in educational materials, which can be an “unexpected slap in the face.” It came up again in his daughter’s drivers’ education class.

“It’s unique ... how it keeps popping up through different avenues of information,” he said, “things I never expected [to have] to deal with or prepare” for.

Kedrok hopes that when people reflect on this year’s anniversary, that they take the time to spend time with loved ones “because life is too short.”

“Just love your family,” he said.

A fire chief’s legacy

Fox River Grove Fire Protection District Chief Robert Kreher was five months into his leadership position when the crash occurred steps away from the fire station.

His brother, Jim, was also working at the department during that fateful day. Jim has since retired, while Robert Kreher remains fire chief, saying he maybe has a couple years left in him before he retires. Over the total of 46 years working at Fox River Grove, that crash was by far the worst one.

The department honors the victims with a memorial site with statues, a plaque and flowers nearby the “Seven Angels Crossing” and the fire department.

“I think with the memorial there, I think when people drive by, they still remember what took place that day,” Kreher said.

A couple of fire district trustees and their families take care of the memorial to this day, keeping it tidy with flowers planted around it.

“I think the community as a whole appreciates somebody taking care of it and keeping it up,” Kreher said.

One of the department’s ambulances bears the numbers 657 in remembrance of the lives that were lost. The “7” is designed with having a halo and angel wings. There’s the Friendship Circle at Cary-Grove High and a memorial outside the Fox River Grove library.

The annual “Seven Angels Blood Drive,” in partnership with nonprofit blood bank Vitalant, this year takes place from from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the fire station, located at 411 Algonquin Road.

“It’s a reminder that any day, something like this can happen,” Kreher said in a Vitalant news release. “Those students needed blood at the hospital. You never know when someone will need it and giving today can help save someone’s life tomorrow.”

A nation changed in rail safety

A report published by the National Transportation Safety Board in 1996 found a multitude of missteps coming together to cause the horrific event: The Illinois Department of Transportation’s failure to recognized the short queuing area for vehicles, insufficient green light time to clear the intersection, the school district’s failure to recognize hazards in its bus routes and unclear communication between highway and railroad signal systems.

The faulty traffic signals were noticed before by Fox River Grove Police Chief Robert Polston. He was sitting with a traffic engineer watching the intersection from across the road to observe the very problems that contributed to the crash that morning.

“He actually witnessed the accident,” Kreher said.

Polston died in 2022 at the age of 75. He served as the village’s police chief from 1981 until his retirement in 2007, according to his obituary.

Another factor was that a substitute bus driver, Patricia Catencamp, was driving the the route, which she had never done before. She could not be reached for comment.

From the back of the bus, passengers were yelling, “a train is coming,” “we’re still on the tracks,” “move the bus,” and “I think we’re gonna get hit by a train,” according to the report.

The bus driver told investigators she could hear the students making noise, but did not hear that they that were warning her that a train was coming, the report states. She also said she did not hear the train horn, the crossing bell or the sound of the gate striking the bus.

“She said that she was not aware that a train was coming until it had struck the bus,” the report said.

The NTSB applauded the emergency response efforts made by multiple departments that day.

In the aftermath, school bus routing was improved, driver training was enhanced, train lights became brighter and thousands of “interconnects” were installed that link traffic signals to train systems so vehicles have enough time to clear the tracks.

“It really changed the crossings across the country,” Kreher said.