#bluelinecrash

[lexmobilejblog]

Passenger from derailed train shares experience

There was a loud boom, as the train went completely dark and her body flew across the car.

"Oh, Jesus, I got tossed so bad," said Overton, a 26-year-old employee for the Transportation Security Administration. "I got tossed from one end of the train to the other end of the train."

She landed awkwardly on her arm, with a pain so sharp she said she couldn't move at first. When she heard other passengers screaming "Oh my God!" over and over again, she forced herself to get up and flee the car in the fear it would catch fire.

(source: Chicago Tribune)

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NTSB News Conference on Blue Line Train Derailment

On Thursday the CTA announced that the Blue Line O'Hare stop is expected to reopen this weekend. A train derailment that happened on Monday left the stop inoperable for the duration of this week. 

Since the news first broke, updates and stories on the issue have been pouring in. Photos of the damage began popping up immediately on social media. Apart from wanting to know if anyone was injured, the first question that came to my mind was, "What caused this to happen?"

At noon on the day of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board held a conference to address questions.  The video below is courtesy of NBC Chicago.

Signal specialist Tim DePapae mentioned a number of things to consider that could have potentially contributed to the accident:

Was the signal system operating properly?

Were the operator's actions appropriate?

Were there mechanical issues with the brakes, etc?

At the time of the conference there were no definitive answers as to what caused the crash.

[lexmobilejblog]

Blue Line Train Derailment

Early Monday morning, news broke that a Blue Line train had derailed and as a result, trains would not be operating at the O'Hare stop.

First Twitter mention of the incident came directly from the CTA.

Blue Line trains are not stopping at O'Hare due to a derailement.

— cta (@cta)

March 24, 2014

Soon after, media coverage of the accident began, providing details and photos from the scene.