37 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

SocialistWorker.org, 4/10:

The real danger is CTA management

CHICAGOANS WATCHED the video footage in shock as a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) train plowed into the end-of-the-line O'Hare Airport Blue Line stop, careening up the escalators like nothing would stop it.

But if you take even a cursory look at the grueling hours and working conditions endured by train operators, the accident isn't that shocking at all.

Continue.

[KevinKorell]

Chicago, IL Tribune, 9/25/14:

CTA to replace O'Hare escalator damaged by runaway train

Arriving next year at the CTA O'Hare stop: a new escalator..

The CTA plans to replace the escalator damaged in March when a Blue Line train derailed and crashed into the platform.

More here.

[CNJRoss]

NTSB news release:

 

NTSB Opens Docket on 2014 CTA Accident at O’Hare Station

 

March 26, 2015

WASHINGTON – As part of its ongoing investigation into a 2014 accident involving a Chicago Transit Authority passenger train, today the National Transportation Safety Board opened the accident docket containing more than 1,600 pages. The docket includes transcripts from various personnel interviews including one with the CTA train operator. It also includes investigative group chairman factual reports, and photographic images related to the investigation.

The accident occurred on March 24, 2014, at approximately 2:49 a.m. (CST), when CTA train No. 141 failed to stop at the O’Hare Station and collided with the bumping post at the end of the track. The lead car of the train rode over the bumping post and traveled up an escalator that was located at the end of the track. At the time of the accident, no one was on the escalator.

This is a document release only and no interviews will be conducted. The docket can be accessed at: http://dms.ntsb.gov/...bnum=DCA14FR007.

 

Additional materials may be added to the docket as they become available. The NTSB report on the accident, including analysis and determination of probable cause, will be released at a later date. For the latest NTSB news, follow us on Twitter at @NTSB or on our website, www.ntsb.gov.

 

 

[CNJRoss]

NTSB news release:

 

 

NTSB To Meet on Chicago Transit Authority Accident

 

 

April 27, 2015

The National Transportation Safety Board will meet to determine the probable cause of the March 24, 2014 accident involving a Chicago Transit Authority passenger train.

The accident occurred at approximately 2:49 a.m. (CST) when CTA train No. 141 failed to stop at the O’Hare Station and collided with the bumping post at the end of the track. The lead car of the train rode over the bumping post and impacted an escalator that was located at the end of the track. At the time of the accident, no one was on the escalator.

 

Event: Board Meeting

Date/Time: Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 9:30 a.m. ET

Location: NTSB Board Room and Conference Center 
                429 L'Enfant Plaza, SW Washington, D.C.

Participants: NTSB Board Members

Live Webcast: A link to the webcast will be available on the following page shortly before the start of the meeting: http://ntsb.capitolconnection.org/

 

 

[CNJRoss]

WBBM (CBS) Chicago, 4/28:
 

Fatigued Driver, Design Flaws Blamed For 2014 O’Hare Blue Line Derailment

 

CHICAGO (CBS) — The National Transportation Board has blamed last year’s Blue Line derailment at O’Hare International Airport on operator fatigue and design flaws with the terminal’s automated braking system.

 

“The layers of protection that were designed to prevent such an accident failed,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said at a hearing Tuesday morning in Washington.

 

Hart pointed to the trip arms and bumping posts at the O’Hare terminal at the end of the tracks, saying neither could adequately slow or stop the train, after the operator nodded off while pulling into the terminal. The train was going approximately 26 mph as it pulled into the station on the center track.

 

Continue here.

[CNJRoss]

NTSB news release:

 

 

CTA O’Hare Accident Caused By Fatigue,

Misplaced Track Braking System

 

 

 

April 28, 2015

WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board today determined that operator fatigue caused the 2014 Chicago Transit Authority accident at O’Hare station. Additionally, CTA did not effectively manage the operator’s work schedule to mitigate the risk of fatigue.

 

In the March 24, 2014, accident, at about 2:49 a.m.(CST, CTA train No. 141 collided with the bumping post at the end of the track. The train’s lead car rode over the bumping post and struck an escalator located at the end of the track, injuring 33 passengers and causing damage of more than $11 million. No one was on the escalator at the time of the accident.

 

The operator had worked 12 consecutive days. During the accident trip, she fell asleep before the train entered the O’Hare station. She awakened when the train hit a safety feature called a track trip seconds before the train struck the bumping post.

 

“Managing operator fatigue is obviously crucial,” said NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart. “Transit agencies need to reduce the risk of fatigue in their scheduling practices, which CTA did not adequately do; and transit operators need to report to work rested, which this transit operator did not do.”

 

Prior to the accident, CTA did not require fatigue awareness training for administrative managers whose responsibilities included scheduling regular and extra board employees. Additionally, there were no limits to the number of double shifts an operator could work, although operators were required to take off at least eight hours after working a double shift.

 

After the accident, CTA revised its work/rest policy. To ensure safer fatigue management in mass transit nationwide, the NTSB recommended that the Federal Transit Administration, which provides federal oversight for rail transit safety, develop a work scheduling program for rail transit agencies that reduces the risk of fatigue. The NTSB also recommended that the FTA establish hours of service regulations for mass transit operators, among other actions.

 

“We have seen again and again that local agencies take remedial action after an accident,” said Hart. “In mass transit, the FTA’s national oversight role allows it to ensure that the lessons learned through an accident in one city do not have to be re-learned through another accident in another city.”

 

The investigation also revealed a variety of design flaws in the placement of the station’s safety features, none of which applied the train’s brakes in time to stop it. Furthermore, the track that the accident train was traveling on at O’Hare station had a 25-mile-per-hour speed restriction, but the bumping post that the train struck was only designed to stop trains traveling at 15 miles per hour.

 

“In this accident, multiple redundant systems were intended to provide protection, but they were implemented in such a way that they never reduced the train’s speed,” said Hart. “But Transmission Based Train Control, a form of positive train control used in mass transit, would have prevented the accident.”

 

To view the full report, including the probable cause and all seven recommendations, click on the following link: http://www.ntsb.gov/...15_CTA_BMG.aspx

 

[CNJRoss]

 

     

NTSB Issues 7 Safety Recommendations as a Result of Its Investigation of the March 24, 2014 Chicago Transit Authority Train Collision with Bumping Post and Escalator at O’Hare Station

 

May 14, 2015

 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issues the following safety recommendations:

To the Federal Transit Administration:

Develop a work scheduling program for rail transit agencies that incorporates fatigue science—such as validated biomathematical models of fatigue—and provides for the management of personnel fatigue risks, and implement the program through the state safety oversight program. (R-15-018)

Establish (through the state safety oversight program) scientifically based hours-of-service regulations that set limits on hours of service, provide predictable work and rest schedules, and consider circadian rhythms and human sleep and rest requirements. (R-15-019)

Identify the necessary training and certification needs for work schedulers in the rail transit industry and require the transit agencies—through the state safety oversight program—to provide additional training or certification for their work schedulers. (R-15-020)

Require (through the state safety oversight program) rail transit employees who develop work schedules to complete initial and recurrent training based on current fatigue science to identify and mitigate work schedule risks that contribute to operator fatigue. (R-15-021)

Require rail transit agencies to implement transmission-based train control systems that prevent train collisions. (R-15-022)

Require that new or rehabilitated rail transit vehicles be equipped with event recorders meeting Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standard 1482.1 for rail transit vehicle event recorders. (R-15-023)

http://www.ntsb.gov/...-15-018-023.pdf

To the Chicago Transit Authority:

Install a transmission-based train control system on all passenger train routes. (R-15-024)

http://www.ntsb.gov/...rs/R-15-024.pdf

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reclassifies the following safety recommendation:

To the Federal Transit Administration:

Facilitate the development and implementation of positive train control systems for rail transit systems nationwide. (R-09-008)

Safety recommendation R-09-008 is classified "Closed--Unacceptable Action/Superseded." It is superseded by safety recommendation R-15-022.

http://www.ntsb.gov/...-15-018-023.pdf

# # #

 

[CNJRoss]

Chicago Tribune, 5//17:
 

Jury awards woman injured in 2014 CTA O'Hare crash over $6 million

 

 

A Cook County jury has awarded more than $6 million to a woman who was seriously injured when a CTA Blue Line train derailed at O'Hare International Airport in 2014, her attorney said Monday.

 

Yolanda Montes, 37, had been a Transportation Security Administration officer at O'Hare and was about to get off the train when it crashed through a barrier at the end of the tracks and landed on top of an escalator. The early morning crash injured more than 30 people and caused roughly $11 million in damages, leading to operational changes at the CTA, including lowering the speed limit for trains approaching the O'Hare platform.

 

The $6.654 million verdict awarded Friday was the largest of all the legal cases brought over the March 24, 2014, accident and the last pending case, said Montes' attorney, Christopher Norem, of the firm Parente & Norem.

 

The second-largest verdict, reached last month, was for $4.1 million for Michael Moore, another TSA employee who had been in the first train car, Norem said.

 

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