Several strong back-and-forth thrusts coursed through the Blue Line cars and the intercom in the operator’s cab buzzed with calls from panicked riders, the rookie motorman of the packed CTA train that derailed and set off a fire told investigators Wednesday.
The jerky motion caused by the derailment during Tuesday’s evening rush period activated the subway train’s automatic brakes, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the third major CTA rail accident since 2001.
The unidentified operator, working only his second day on the Blue Line, smelled acrid smoke that he associated with an electrical fire. He radioed his dispatcher to shut off the 600 volts that power CTA trains, he told NTSB investigators.
The odor got stronger as he walked through the eight-car train, he said.
His plan–after shining a flashlight on a sign near the subway tunnel’s narrow catwalk that showed the nearest emergency exit several hundred feet away–was to begin evacuating the 1,000 commuters on the train.
But many riders beat him to it.
The operator quickly realized that passengers were already leaving on their own, after pulling the red emergency knobs that hang above exits to open the doors, safety board member Kitty Higgins said Wednesday, as investigators began to sift through conflicting reports of chaos and an orderly evacuation.
“People were exiting the train, and he decided that his job was to get people out to the exit,” Higgins said, adding that the train operator waited until everybody else was out before he climbed the stairs up to Clinton and Fulton Streets just west of the Loop.
Even before rail service was restored Wednesday morning, CTA officials commended the operator, who was hired in March 2005, for turning in a textbook performance.
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But NTSB officials withheld judgment.
“We first want to thank the first-responders who obviously did a great job getting everybody off the train and out of harm’s way,” Higgins said, referring to more than a dozen emergency agencies from Chicago and several suburbs that participated.
The safety board launched major CTA investigations in 2001 after two rear-end collisions involving rail cars. The probable cause of both accidents was the trains’ motormen failing to comply with operating safety rules, the board found.
But a follow-up NTSB report criticized the whole “culture of safety” at the transit agency and blamed CTA management for contributing to the accidents by providing poor safety oversight. The board recommended that the CTA develop a better program that would include more thorough reviews of maintenance and internal inspection records and to ensure that safety regulations are followed.
The CTA has not met all of the safety board’s recommendations, but the transit agency “is making acceptable progress,” Higgins said Wednesday.
The train operator involved in Tuesday’s accident conducted his first solo runs on the Blue Line on Monday, after working on two CTA elevated routes, the Orange and Green Lines, investigators said.
The evacuation and the response by emergency agencies are only part of what the 11-member safety board team will examine.
Up to 10 train passengers remained hospitalized Wednesday, including two who were reported in critical condition. More than 150 people were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries, officials said.
Meanwhile, the first lawsuits were filed Wednesday and personal-injury attorneys said damages ultimately awarded may be larger than normal due to initial fears that the accident was a terrorist attack.
A suit brought on behalf of passenger Janice Butera, 22, alleges the CTA was negligent in failing to properly operate or maintain the rail system.
Butera and two other passengers, Sue Graf and Lisa Fitzmaurice, all of Chicago, sustained smoke inhalation injuries and bruises in the derailment, lawyer Dan Kotin said. Each has filed suit.
Earlier Tuesday, as many as 200 people died after apparent terrorist attacks on rail lines in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.
Investigators found that the fire that erupted underneath the last car of the Blue Line train caused severe damage, Higgins said, but it is not yet known why the eighth car derailed, creating an arching spark of electricity that reached the third rail.
Before other members of the safety board team arrived, NTSB investigators from the Chicago area inspected and took measurements of the 300 feet of damaged track and a 10-foot segment of electrified third rail. They also photographed the accident scene and “documented and gathered all perishable evidence” before giving the CTA approval to restore service prior to the morning rush between the Loop and O’Hare International Airport, Higgins said.
Mechanical issues with the 2600 Series CTA train, which entered service in the 1980s, and the CTA’s maintenance history of the track in the deepest part of the Blue Line subway tunnel and track inspection records will be reviewed, officials said.
Because the train is an older model, it was not required to have a “black box,” which records data ranging from train speed to signal indicators. But investigators said they hoped to re-create the sequence of the accident using data from track-side signal blocks and other equipment.
The operator said he was traveling about 20 miles an hour in the 25 m.p.h. zone where the train derailed.
Investigators have not indicated they are focusing on excessive speed as a possible cause.
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