The crash of the Chicago
Transit Authority Blue Line train injured 32 people, although none
seriously, according to Chicago Fire officials.
The eight-car train
failed to stop at the end of the line when it arrived at the airport
station at 2:52 a.m., a Chicago Fire official said. The lead car
appeared to have climbed an escalator adjacent to the passenger
platform.
"I've investigated many
accidents and trains do different things," National Transportation
Safety Board investigator Tim DePaepe told reporters. "It's all about
kinetic force. I have not seen an accident like this personally."
NTSB experts will examine
video from station cameras and one on the front of the train for clues
to the cause of the crash, DePaepe said.
A union official told reporters Monday that the train's driver may have fallen asleep.
"There are indications
that she dozed off, yes," Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 President
Robert Kelly said, according to WLS.
Almost all of the 32 people taken to four hospitals had been released by the afternoon, he said.
Investigators are still waiting for the train operator to be released from the hospital so that they can talk to her, he said.
The wrecked train will not be moved at least until Tuesday so that investigators can examine it, DePaepe said.
Shuttle buses are carrying airport passengers to and from a nearby Blue Line station until then, a CTA official said.
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