Every Oct. 25 for the past 30 years, I’ve stopped and thought about the tragic event of 1995.

That was the morning when a speeding Metra train struck the back of a school bus carrying 35 high school students. Seven of them died as a result. All but four of the rest were injured.

The Cary-Grove High School students who died were Jeffrey Clark, 16; Stephanie Fulham, 15; Susanna Guzman; 18; Michael Hoffman, 14; Joe Kalte, 16: Shawn Robinson, 14; and Tiffany Schneider, 15.

A substitute bus driver was driving that day when she crossed the train tracks at Algonquin Road and Route 14 in Fox River Grove. When she had to stop for red light just past the tracks, she didn’t realize that the back of the bus was still on the tracks.

When the train struck the bus, it knocked the body of the bus off its chassis.

To say that the scene was horrific would be an understatement. Those who were at the scene carry it with them still.

I know how hard it was for the journalists who did their best to tell that story. I had only been a professional journalist for five years. As it turned out, I wasn’t in the newsroom that day, which was a Wednesday, because I was getting ready for my wedding that weekend.

However, even the wedding was colored by the sadness of what happened in Fox River Grove. The reporters and editors who attended our reception had to leave early because the National Transportation Safety Board was conducting a reconstruction of the crash the next morning.

Every one of them felt the sadness acutely, but each was determined to do the very best job possible.

Many people have a false idea about journalists. I’ve heard it many times over the 35 years that I’ve worked at this newspaper: You people are only out to sell newspapers.

Although I cannot speak for all journalists everywhere, I believe I can safely speak for those of us who work for community newspapers.

We are feeling human beings who hurt just like you do. We are your neighbors, and when something tragic happens to you, it happens to us too.

I have cried countless times when I had to edit stories about this bus crash. I think about the fathers who never got to walk their daughters down the aisle. I think about the mothers who never got to ease the nerves of their sons as they waited for their brides. I think about the lost potential of those seven young people who never got to finish growing up, to go on to have careers and to have families of their own.

I’ve felt terrible for that substitute bus driver and for the train conductor. How that fateful morning must have stuck with them.

Trying to tell this story – or any story like it – is extremely difficult. None of us wants to cause more pain to family members who are grieving. However, what we can do is to share what their loved ones were like so that their stories are told. So that they can be seen as more than a statistic.

As the copy editor who put together the front page during those years, I especially felt a responsibility toward those families and toward the entire community. I didn’t want to get a single thing wrong because I felt that honoring the memories of those who were killed was part of my job.

I still feel that way. My colleagues who were at the scene that day in 1995 felt that way too.

As community journalists, we covered vigils that happened after the crash. We were at the dedications of the memorials to those who died. And we’re here for the anniversaries as a reminder that those dear young people will never be forgotten.

As a result of the crash, many improvements were made to ensure the safety of students on school buses. Bus routing and driver training were improved, train lights were made brighter, and traffic signals and train systems were better linked to enhance safety.

How we all wish it wouldn’t have required the deaths of seven teenagers to make all of that happen.

As for me, I will continue to remember those seven young people each and every Oct. 25.

Just as I know you will too.

• Joan Oliver is the former Northwest Herald assistant news editor. She has been associated with the Northwest Herald since 1990. She can be reached at jolivercolumn@gmail.com.