CTA Fires, Suspends Employees For Blue Line Runaway Train Crash

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 2, 2013 8:00PM

On Friday, the Chicago Transit Authority announced the firings of two employees and the suspension of two others in connection with September's runaway train incident on the Blue Line’s Forest Park branch.

Two electricians were fired for using improper techniques to clean an electrical junction box on one of the runaway train's cars and for allowing water to enter electrical components.

The Forest Park switchman was suspended for three days for allegedly leaving the unattended train powered up for 48 hours and failing to notify a supervisor of its status. The fourth employee, a rail car yard cleaning supervisor at the Forest Park repair terminal, was suspended for two weeks for an unspecified reason.

Robert Kelly, spokesman for the union representing the rail workers, said the four are being made scapegoats by the CTA. “None of them did anything wrong,” Kelly said. “Not one of them.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the cause of the Sept. 30 crash where an unmanned train crashed into a westbound Blue Line car. A preliminary report released last month included “urgent” recommendations so future accidents would not occur.