2 suspended for foot caught in train doors

CHICAGO, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Two crew members have been suspended for allegedly allowing a Chicago train to leave a station with a 4-year-old boy's foot stuck in the door, officials said.

Deon Newton Jr., his mother, Eileen Kermer, 31, and his 11-year-old sister Kalea, were leaving the train Saturday at their home town's station in Worth, when the doors closed on the child's chest, sprang open, but then was unable to sense the child's foot, and the train began to pull out of the station, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

"With all my might, I pulled him as hard as I could. I didn't care if he lost his leg at that point or anything. I had to get him out of there," Kermer said, describing her terror.

The child slipped out of his boot and was not hurt, the Sun-Times reported.

Kermer said there was no conductor in sight when they got off the train to give the driver an all-clear signal.

Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said the crew is required to see that all platforms are clear and all doors free of anyone getting on and off the train. The crew member then closes all doors, except his or her own door, and takes a second look to make sure no objects are stuck, the Sun-Times reported.

Metra instituted tighter safety policies after the 1995 incident in which musician Rachel Barton, whose violin got caught in the doors, was dragged under the train and lost part of a leg, the Tribune said.

"It should be a fail-safe system. They promised us that after Barton. We didn't get it," said attorney Robert A. Clifford, who represented Barton in her case against Metra, the Sun-Times reported