CHICAGO, April 7 (UPI) -- The operator who fell asleep and crashed a train into Chicago’s O’Hare station last month has been fired by the Chicago Transit Authority.
According to the Chicago Tribune, “the CTA sent the operator a termination notice, effective immediately,” after she failed to show up for a disciplinary hearing Thursday.
The Mar. 24 crash -- which injured at least 30 people when a train derailed, smashed through a barrier, and ran up an escalator -- was sufficient grounds for termination according to the CTA. However, the notice cited this as the “second of two serious safety violations” by the operator, who also overran a stop back in February.
Though the operator worked 55 hours in the seven days leading up to the crash, Brian Steele, a spokesman for the CTA, said, "There was nothing about that operator's work schedule that suggests fatigue should have played a role in her performance." Steele claims that the operator had 18 hours off before the shift during which the accident occurred.
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Still, the CTA has implemented changes to its work rules for operators: setting a maximum of 12 hours of train operations during a 14 hour period, increasing the minimum rest time between shifts, requiring operators to take at least one day off in a seven day period, limiting new operators to 32 hours a week, reducing the speed limit of trains approaching station to 15 mph, and moving the trip arm devices meant to trigger emergency brakes on trains traveling above the speed limit further from the end of platforms.
[Chicago Tribune]
