CHICAGO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A Chicago-area woman is suing the Chicago Transit Authority, alleging she was beaten because the "panic button" in a train car was disabled.
Katherine Willeke's lawsuit claims unspecified damages on the grounds of negligence, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday.
In legal papers filed in Cook County Circuit Court, Willeke said she was on a Green Line train Jan. 12 when two young men entered the car. One had a pipe.
When the men demanded another woman's wallet, Willeke said she looked for the "panic button," which allows passengers to alert train operators to emergencies, only to find it blocked off.
She said she was attacked and beaten with the metal pipe before she could use her cellphone, the newspaper said.
Before the robbery, the CTA had been distributing fliers for several weeks on the Green Line to warn passengers of robberies, Willeke said. Her lawsuit said under the circumstances the CTA's failure to provide working panic buttons is negligence.
