Patricia Quane, a veteran Oak Park elementary school teacher, and president-elect of the Oak Park Cycle Club, was killed early Tuesday morning when the bicycle she was riding was struck by a Metra train in Riverside.
Quane is an Oak Park resident. She has three daughters, Abigail, 17; Amelia, 21; and Allegra, 23.
Quane has taught in Oak Park District 97 schools since 1989 and was currently speech and language teacher at Holmes School, 508 N. Kenilworth Ave., said Gail Krantz, district spokeswoman.
“This is just devastating. She was a very safe biker. She is the last person you’d expect to be in an accident,” said Brain Crawford, spokesperson for the Oak Park Cycle Club.
The accident occurred Tuesday morning about 7:45 at the Riverside station, according to a report on the Chicago Tribune’s web site. Quane was struck by an inbound express train on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line.
According to a Metra spokesperson a minor freight train derailment earlier Tuesday had the commuter train running on a different track than normal. It is not clear if that change had any impact on the accident. According to the Metra spokesperson, a local train was stopped to take on passengers at the Riverside station. Quane allegedly rode around the stopped train and was struck by the express.
Quane was not carrying identification and her body was not identified for several hours. District 97 said it received word of the accident on Tuesday afternoon.
Complete coverage of this accident will be included in the August 31 editions of Wednesday Journal and the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark.
