Local Doctor Relates Illinois Train Tragedy

              Survivor of Major Wreck
Local Doctor Relates
Illinois Train Tragedy
By Margaret Martin
Times Medical Writer
Shreveport hematologist Dr.
Joyce Redetzki doesn't like to
fly so when she returned from a
Chicago medical meeting last
week she took the City of New
Orleans passenger train, plan-ning
to get off in Jackson, Miss.
But there was an unscheduled
stop near Salem, Ill., due to a
derailment which killed 11 per-sons
and injured nearly 100
others.
The southbound train, pride of
the Illinois Central Railroad and
operating under the Amtrak
system, tore up 1,200 feet of
track as it derailed at Tonti, Ill.,
three miles northwest of Salem
in Southern Illinois. The acci-dent
happened about 12:30 p.m.
Thursday.
Dr. Redetzki, who was not
injured, finally arrived home
S a t u r d a y . Her husband, Dr.
H. M. Redetzki, head of the
pharmacology department a t
Louisiana State University Med-ical
School at Shreveport, flew
to St. Louis to pick her up, and
they drove home.
The Shreveporter was sitting
in the middle of Car 17. She
says, "I heard what sounded
like an alarm and then a loud
screech of wheels . . .
Sudden Stepping on Brakes
"What sounded like a very
sudden stepping on brakes — I
had been on trains which had to
stop for cars and I thought that
was what it was.
"There were five bumps, and
the car seemed to jump in the
air.
"I was holding on to the back
of the seat in front of me.
"I thought, 'We are in for it
now'."
At this point she could feel the
wheels "running on the cross
ties," and "the car began to
sway from side to side."
"I could see the aisle across
from me going down and I
braced myself," she said.
And, the Shreveport doctor, a
member of the intenal medicine
department at the V e t e r a n s
Administration Hospital ended
up standing up on the end of the
seat on the other end of the
aisle, with suitcases tumbling
down all around her.
Outside, "all the cars in front
of us . . . our car . . . had
derailed and were all folded up
like accordians and the engine
was on fire."
As soon as the train came to a
standstill in the middle of that
flat I l l i n o i s corn field, Dr.
Redetzki "realized that I had
survived," and "made a bee-line
for the door — all I could
think about was the possibility
of a fire."
"I think I was the first one off
the train," she recalled.
"People were screaming
first because they couldn't get
out of some of the cars but the
screaming stopped after the
initial shock wore off."
Dr. Redetzki went back inside
her car to see if anyone was
hurt and l a t e r she and
medical student checked out
some of the injured, "but we
were pretty helpless — there
was no equipment and no first
aid supplies."
She was asked to climb into
one overturned car "to see if a
woman could be moved," and
she, with the help of the medical
student, and another man re-moved
a piece of the engine
which was lying on top of a
little girl.
"After that there was abso-lutely
nothing we could do.
"The ambulances a r r i v e d
within 10 to 15 minutes after the
accident and gave marvelous
service for such a tiny town.
"Everything was well organ-ized.
The fire trucks arrived
within 15 to 20 minutes and
began s p r a y i n g the burning
engine," she said.
School buses took those who
could walk into Salem, and the
walking injured were taken to
towns in and around Salem,
"while the s e v e r e l y injured
were taken into St. Lous."