The Chicago Tribune reported today that the National Traffic
Safety Board (“NTSB”) concluded that the CTA Blue Line crash at O’Hare airport was driving too fast for the emergency brake to properly
trigger and prevent the train accident. The NTSB’s preliminary report into the cause of the early-morning accident on March
24 said the distance between a bumper post at the end of the line and a trip
arm in the tracks designed to activate the train’s emergency braking system was
“too short to stop the train” due to its speed of roughly 26 mph.
Asked
why the CTA had not set a slower speed limit in the tunnel leading to the
station, or positioned the emergency-stop device further out from the platforms
where trains berth, safety board spokesman Terry Williams said “those questions
are part of our investigation and some of the issues we are looking into.’’
The CTA
two weeks ago lowered the speed limit of trains entering the O’Hare station
from 25 mph to 15 mph and moved the fixed trip arm further away from the bumper
post, to provide a total of 61 feet in stopping distance.
For
those following this case it appears that the CTA will be on the hook for
passenger injuries based on, at least, three main factors. First, the train operator
admitted she nodded off immediately prior to the train crash and the CTA is
responsible for the negligent acts of their employees. Second, the train
operator was driving the blue line at too high of a speed, which did not allow
the emergency brake to properly trigger. Again, the CTA is responsible for negligent
acts of its employees. Third, they set the speed limit too high for the
emergency brake to properly stop incoming trains. These are three allegations that can be made and seem the most obvious from the media reports, but as the investigation continues, there will likely be more allegations of negligence by the CTA.
Although
this train accident was terrible and people were injured, I think there are some
positives that can come from this. First, no one died. This derailment and
crash was brutal as the video shows and the fact that there were no deaths and
few critical injuries is a minor miracle. Second, the CTA can now make the
proper corrections to its emergency braking system, which will hopefully
prevent this from happening again.
If you
or someone you love has been injured in a CTA train accident, Chicago busaccident or Chicago car crash, then call Chicago personal injury attorney,
Aaron Bryant, for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076.