Dad of teen girl killed by Metra train in Barrington, Illinois wants to know why there's still no pedestrian gate

CBS News

a day ago

The father of a 17-year-old girl hit and killed by a Metra train in Barrington, Illinois, last year says his grief will never go away — and he is ramping up his fight to keep other students safe.
Mike Lacson is raising new concerns about why it has taken the Village of Barrington so long to install a pedestrian gate to prevent such tragedies.
Lacson's daughter, Marin Lacson, was on her way to Barrington High School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, when she was struck and killed by a Union Pacific Northwest Metra train. Almost a year and a half later, there are still fresh flowers.
Marin Lacson
Family Photo/CBS
But there is no pedestrian gate.
"I can't believe that 15 months in, we're still asking for gates to be put up," said Mike Lacson.
Lacson's interview with CBS News Chicago was the first time he spoke one-on-one about losing his daughter — and the pain that never goes away.
"There's no healing for us. There's no healing from this," he said. "It's learning to live with it."
Marin was a junior at Barrington High School. Like dozens of other students, she crossed the tracks at Hough and Main streets to get to school on that gray, foggy January morning last year.
She waited for one Metra train to pass. When it did, she began to cross — and a train coming from the other direction hit her.
"The witnesses that saw the accident — I think one of them actually said, you know, that train jumped out of the fog," said Lacson.
Shortly after Marin's death, Lacson began fighting for a pedestrian gate at the crossing. Dozens in the community joined him.
"We will not take excuses anymore," said Roma Khan.
Khan and other activists are also fueled by the knowledge that Marin wasn't the only student hit at Hough and Main streets. Eleven years earlier, then-11-year-old Dominic Szymanski lost his foot in a similar incident.
CBS News Chicago spoke to Dominic's mom last year.
"I had very strong feelings about what needed to change," said Gayle Szymanski. "My answer was gates."
In February 2024, CBS News Chicago asked then-Barrington Village President Karen Darch if she thought the village had dropped the ball at the Metra crossing.
"I feel like it has been — we can put things place that enhance safety," said Darch.
Darch said at the time that getting a gate was complicated. But officials said one should be in place by early 2025.
A frustrated Lacson confronted the Barrington Village Board this past April.
"You've delayed this process," he told the board. "You have delayed this process."
In fact, it took until late March of this year for the Village of Barrington event o submit a petition, as is required for the project, to the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Lacson said this also followed 14 months of victim-blaming.
"They are actively telling people it is Marin's fault," he said, "and I'm not going to accept that, because if there were pedestrian gates there, she would still be here."
Newly elected Illinois state Sen. Darby Hills lives in Barrington.
"This has been an issue my constituents have been bringing up to me from day one," Hills said.
Hills supports a ped gate at the crossing too.
"I, again, am jumping into this, and I'm trying to find out where the missteps are, or where there's some sort of way I can help," said Hills.
Lacson and his wife recently met with Marin's lacrosse teammates at what would have been one of her final games as a senior.
"One more thing," he told the girls on the team. "Hug your parents."
Some members of the team wore shirts in Marin's honor. Lacson said his way of honoring his daughter will be getting that gate installed — and he is going to keep fighting until it happens.
"Absolutely," he said. "Absolutely."
So why the delay? According to a Barrington village spokesperson, the Illinois Commerce Commission — which must improve the ped gate — recommended that all renderings and reports be completed before the project petition was submitted. The ICC will hold a hearing on the hearing on the ped gate on Thursday, June 5.