Rail Emergencies

[sw4400]

I have been viewing the People Of The CTA Facebook Page and came across an interesting post from a individual which for privacy purposes I will omit the name. I am interested in your thoughts...

Suicide attempt on CTA

This morning November 2nd 2013 at 5:45am on the Red Line train traveling northbound between Roosevelt and Harrison a man directly in front of me pulled the emergency exit, opened the doors and jumped while the train was in motion. Before he jumped he was texting on his phone and said “F*** this Sh**!” Then pulled the release handle and jumped. I watched him jump and heard his body hit the cement wall. I then pressed the call-button and alerted the conductor while the train was still in motion and the doors were still open. Before we were able to reach the Harrison stop the train came to halt (doors still open and we could have fell out) the conductor came walking asking what happened then back-tracked. A few minutes later he came back on the train, closed all the doors and continued to Harrison. He made no announcements until we reached the Grand stop. He then stated that the train would be running express to Fullerton. I don’t believe this was handled properly at all. Why didn’t the train slow down or stop when the emergency handle was pulled? Why didn’t he stop at Harrison and make sure nothing else happened? I, along with other passengers, could have fallen out of the train. The incident continues to replay in my head over and over. I get startled every time I hear something slam. I don’t know if the man survived or not. There MUST be a different way of handling situations like this. How are passengers supposed to cope with witnessing suicide or attempted-suicides on city property? There has to be something done about this rather than simply leaving us to wonder what happened. Whenever we’re engaged in a car accident we’re not supposed to leave the scene of the accident for legal purposes. Well, this is a crime scene and we (I mean the CTA) left the scene.

I can’t shake this from my head. I need to know if the man is ok or not.

For the highlighted Orange lines, I ask the forum the same question the individual did... why didn't the train stop or slow when that cherry was pulled? Isn't that it's purpose???

For the highlighted Red lines, I ask the forum if both the CTA and the Rail Operator handled this situation correctly? Shouldn't the train have been halted right there for the fear of possibly running over the jumper if the train didn't do so already? They could've just evacuated the passengers after cutting power to the third rail to the emergency exits in the Subway. I doubt the Rail Operator got off, found the jumper, chastised him for doing what he did, got him to re-board the train and radioed for CPD to meet him at Fullerton, which was four stops away from Grand.

Maybe this is just overanalyzing, but did the CTA follow procedures correctly here? I can't even say this took place as there was no news story about it. I guess we can only believe that this individual riding the Red Line at 5:45a on a NB Red Line train is telling a true story.

[4CottageGrove95th]

I have been viewing the People Of The CTA Facebook Page and came across an interesting post from a individual which for privacy purposes I will omit the name. I am interested in your thoughts...

Why didn’t the train slow down or stop when the emergency handle was pulled? Why didn’t he stop at Harrison and make sure nothing else happened? I, along with other passengers, could have fallen out of the train. The incident continues to replay in my head over and over. I get startled every time I hear something slam. I don’t know if the man survived or not. There MUST be a different way of handling situations like this. How are passengers supposed to cope with witnessing suicide or attempted-suicides on city property? There has to be something done about this rather than simply leaving us to wonder what happened. Whenever we’re engaged in a car accident we’re not supposed to leave the scene of the accident for legal purposes. Well, this is a crime scene and we (I mean the CTA) left the scene.

I can’t shake this from my head. I need to know if the man is ok or not.

For the highlighted Orange lines, I ask the forum the same question the individual did... why didn't the train stop or slow when that cherry was pulled? Isn't that it's purpose???

For the highlighted Red lines, I ask the forum if both the CTA and the Rail Operator handled this situation correctly? Shouldn't the train have been halted right there for the fear of possibly running over the jumper if the train didn't do so already? They could've just evacuated the passengers after cutting power to the third rail to the emergency exits in the Subway. I doubt the Rail Operator got off, found the jumper, chastised him for doing what he did, got him to re-board the train and radioed for CPD to meet him at Fullerton, which was four stops away from Grand.

Maybe this is just overanalyzing, but did the CTA follow procedures correctly here? I can't even say this took place as there was no news story about it. I guess we can only believe that this individual riding the Red Line at 5:45a on a NB Red Line train is telling a true story.

Truthfully, it does not appear that you are overanalyzing this at all because there is the possibility that a life was lost in a pretty horrific way. As for the way this particular operator/motorman handled the situation, I would have to say the matter wasn't handled properly, again because we're talking about a possible suicide, or at least attempted suicide. Not having worked for CTA or any other transit system for that matter, there are intricate areas of protocol I would not be familiar with. But just common sense says that after being alerted to what happened, the train should not have been moved simply because of the nature of the emergency; the operator, after making sure that the passengers on the train were safe, should have notified Control Center at the very least. One would think that after the stink about how the Blue Line subway fire evacuation was handled a few years back, that CTA should have sensible procedures in place for an incident such as a suicide attempt, especially from a moving train at that.

As for the train not stopping or at least slowing down when the cherry was pulled, I'm kinda stumped on that one due to the fact that when any of the doors are opened, even slightly, the train cannot be moved, at least when it's not in motion. So it only seems reasonable that the same mechanism would, at the very least, slow a moving train down. Seems to me that IF this really did happen, there are yet a few more details to be supplied.

[Chicago13]

I'm calling B.S. on this one. There has been no news coverage of this happening. There most certainly would have been some kind of news report somewhere even if it was only a paragraph.

Also, there must have been other people on that train. You would think someone would have dialed 911 and reported it. It sounds to me by reading that post, no one bothered to call 911.

[Busjack]

I'm calling B.S. on this one. There has been no news coverage of this happening. There most certainly would have been some kind of news report somewhere even if it was only a paragraph.

Also, there must have been other people on that train. You would think someone would have dialed 911 and reported it. It sounds to me by reading that post, no one bothered to call 911.

In that Metra has one of these reported every couple of days, and the traffic reporters have to have something every 10 minutes, I would tend to agree with you. There would have been at least a Customer Alert that service was "disrupted due to a medical emergency," as is posted when someone commits suicide by L. Then we go back to who keeps up the "Rail Service Alerts" thread.

Unless there is something freaky like the Harlem-Congress crash, pulling the cherry stops the train. Then traffic is disrupted on the line and a Customer Alert is posted.

Also, as Metra points out on a daily basis, service is stopped until the police and paramedics do their job.

Someone would be going to the Tribune or ABC7 Eyewitness News over something like this, not posting on Facebook.

[Busjack]

Doing a Google of CTA + suicide came up with only this as a recent article, which deals with a dismembered body found in the Blue Line subway where a "conductor" saw a body on the tracks (Jan. 14, 2013).

I think it is a fairly sure bet that if this happened again, but on the Red Line, there would have been a similar news article somewhere, but all Google turns up is reference to the Facebook post.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

The Facebook post sounds really off. I would think that there would at least be a service alert, like Busjack said. And I've never heard of someone successfully operating the cherry cord at 15+ MPH, although it has been done on a train almost at a stop at a station. Also, if something like this happened in a train car I'm in, I'd HOPE I'd be seeing the train car call buttons being pressed, and not the "Post to Facebook" buttons being pressed.