Kaneland School District mourns loss of another student
By ERIC SCHELKOPF - Shaw Suburban Media
MAPLE PARK – It has been a tough year for Kaneland High School students, who on Tuesday mourned the death of another classmate.
Andrew Christoffel, 18, of Elburn died Monday after being hit by a train Saturday night on the rails of a Union Pacific track just west of Somonauk Road in Cortland.
Christoffel was set to graduate Sunday.
Christoffel’s death comes after a year already filled with tragedy. Kaneland seniors Blake Denton and Jeff Malewig, both from Sugar Grove, died in a car crash in December 2008 while on their way to the high school.
Counselors from Conley Outreach were in the high school’s library Tuesday to help students cope with the news.
“The students were all really shocked and upset,” Kaneland School Superintendent Charles McCormick said. “They looked kind of shell shocked as I walked by them.”
His death was not mentioned during Sunday’s graduation ceremony because the district did not have information confirmed at the time, McCormick said.
News of his death was posted on the district’s Web page Monday. A memorial fund might be set up to help the family defray the cost of his funeral, McCormick said.
The district has been in contact with Christoffel’s family, he said.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
About 10:45 p.m. Saturday, workers on a Union Pacific train called 911 and reported someone lying between the rails on the parallel track just west of Somonauk Road, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said Sunday.
Cortland police responded and found Christoffel, who appeared to have been hit by a train. Christoffel was severely injured and unconscious, Cortland Police Chief Russell Stokes said. He was taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, then airlifted to a Rockford hospital.
Cortland police are working with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and Union Pacific Railroad police to investigate the incident. Stokes said he was hopeful that a Union Pacific engine equipped with an onboard camera captured what happened in the moments before the collision.
Though Stokes said the last record he could find of a train-related fatality in Cortland was about 100 years ago, Christoffel is the 12th person to die from a train collision in DeKalb County since September 2006. There also have been four nonfatal collisions in that time frame, three of which resulted in injuries.
“It’s a very tragic thing,” Stokes said. “To have a young person of that age be injured in such a terrible fashion is a hard thing for family and friends to have to deal with.”
• Reporter Dana Herra contributed to this report.
