Rose Tani's Car Struck By Train In IL

Aero-News is saddened to report the mother of NASA Flight Engineer Daniel Tani (shown at right), one of three members of Expedition 16 now onboard the International Space Station, was killed Wednesday when she drove her car through a Lombard, IL railroad crossing and was struck by a train.

Police say Rose Tani, 90, stopped behind a school bus that had stopped at the crossing. A preliminary investigation indicates Tani became impatient and honked her horn, before driving past the school bus and around a lowered crossing gate. The train impacted the right side of Tani's vehicle, pushing it down the tracks before coming to a stop.

Paramedics took Tani to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

"All indications are that the crossing gates and warning signals were functioning properly at the time of the accident," Lombard Police Chief Raymond Byrne told The Associated Press.

According to his NASA biography, Daniel Tani, 46, was born in Pennsylvania "but considers Lombard, Illinois, to be his hometown." Tani is a graduate of Glenbard East High School, the same school as the students who were on the bus at the railroad crossing.

As ANN reported, Tani and Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson completed the 100th spacewalk onboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. The astronauts examined two troublesome mechanisms related to power generation onboard the orbiting station during the nearly seven-hour excursion.

Tani rode into orbit onboard the shuttle Discovery October 23. He is due to return to Earth onboard STS-122, the mission scheduled for the shuttle Atlantis. Tani was originally scheduled to leave the station January 8, though the launch of Atlantis has since been delayed until January 10 at the earliest due to glitches with fuel level sensors inside the orbiter's external fuel tanks.

NASA officials had not commented on the accident as of Wednesday night.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/station