No answers as investigation begins into Chicago train crash as Yellow Line remains suspended

CHICAGO — Few answers emerged Friday about the Chicago Transit Authority crash that sent 23 people to hospitals when a Yellow Line train slammed into a snowplow.

National Transportation Safety Board officials described how the crash will be investigated at a news conference late Friday afternoon, but said nothing to answer how it occurred.

“It’s really early in the investigation, and right now we’re very focused on just documenting the scene and beginning the process,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. “We are only here to get the facts. We are here to get the perishable evidence.”

The independent federal oversight agency has a 14-person team responding to the crash that occurred near the border of Evanston and Chicago close to the Howard station.

Investigators will look at the train car, track conditions, signals, mechanical systems and operations, Homendy said. While a preliminary fact-finding report will be shared within weeks, a final analysis will not be released for 12 to 18 months, she added. Homendy said she hoped to share basic information, like the train’s speed, within days.

The NTSB will share new information with the involved transit agencies and labor unions, including the CTA and the Illinois Department of Transportation, throughout the investigation, Homendy said.

“They can make safety change immediately. They don’t have to wait for the issuance of our final report,” she said.

Later, she added that she doesn’t yet have any specific safety recommendations for the CTA.

The crash occurred at 10:35 a.m. Thursday when a train struck a slower diesel-powered snow removal train that was moving in the same direction on the same track, authorities have said. A source familiar with the incident has said the snowplow was on the tracks for scheduled training.

Investigators took extensive photos of the crash site, where the snowplow and Yellow Line train were still on the tracks, Homendy said. Service remained suspended on the Yellow Line Friday.

The CTA had not set a timeframe to reopen the line, an agency spokesperson said. The line is an extension off the Red Line serving the North Side, starting in the Rogers Park neighborhood, with two stops in Skokie. Homendy told reporters she hoped its trains would run again within five days.

CTA officials did not attend the NTSB news conference and referred other questions to the NTSB, saying the NTSB instructed it to not discuss the ongoing investigation. CTA officials were not invited to speak at the news conference, as is typical with NTSB briefings, a CTA spokesperson said.

An NTSB spokesperson confirmed the instruction, adding that the agency speaks alone as post-crash news conference and acts as the one source for publicly-shared crash information.

Homendy said CTA President Dorval Carter attended a planning meeting earlier Friday. “He is very familiar with the NTSB investigative process. They have been very cooperative,” she said.

Rogers Park Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, said Carter also attended an NTSB crash site visit alongside elected officials.

When asked what is the most important question to answer during the investigation, Homendy responded quickly.

“What do we need to do to prevent this from reoccurring,” she said. “It is very serious. There were children on board.”

She also added that, despite the crash, “rail transportation is incredibly safe.”

“Incidents unfortunately do occur. But the most dangerous part of any commute is going on our nation’s roads,” Homendy said.

At least two passengers involved in the crash have filed lawsuits against the transit agency.

Passenger Matt Jones, whose attorneys said he is a 67-year-old architect from Skokie, accused CTA of negligence in a second lawsuit filed Friday morning, his attorneys told the Tribune.

Jones injured his head and needed stitches, his attorney, Joseph Murphy, said. He was sitting on the first car of the train, riding on a work-related trip, and saw the “carnage” of the crash, Murphy said.

“He was bounced around like a pingpong ball,” Murphy said. “He hit his head a couple different areas.”

“We have a CTA train that hits another CTA piece of equipment,” Murphy said. “Why is one hand not talking to the other?”

Murphy also filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of another passenger, Cleon Hawkins, who also alleged negligence by CTA. Hawkins, 52, said his shoulders and leg were injured as he road in the train’s second car. “I am glad to be alive,” he told the Tribune Thursday. “It was a shock. I’m glad I didn’t hit my head.”

CTA spokeswoman Catherine Hosinksi said CTA had not seen Murphy’s lawsuit early Friday afternoon, and would not comment on pending litigation.

The crash comes four years after a 2019 collision in which two trains collided near the Sedgwick station, sending 14 people to hospitals, all in good or fair condition.

In 2014, a Blue Line train pulling into the station at O’Hare International Airport crashed through a barrier at the end of the tracks and landed on top of an escalator after the rookie operator dozed off. The crash injured more than 30 people and caused roughly $11 million in damages, and led to operational changes at the CTA, including lowering the speed limit for trains approaching the O’Hare platform.

After the 2014 crash, the NTSB recommended the CTA install train-control technology, Homendy said. The CTA uses “automatic” train control that controls speed to avoid crashes, but not the more comprehensive “positive” train controls that include actual speed adjustments, Homendy and lead investigator Jim Southworth said.

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