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Nov. 2023 Yellow Line Collision


Busjack

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1 hour ago, Elkmn said:

all I want is them to lift the 35mph restriction

Have you done enough testing to verify that it's safe and worth it to save maybe 2 minutes? The State Legislature is working on what I characterized as "feel good" legislation and you want CTA immediately to violate the NTSB's preliminary findings? The current timetable indicates a 10-minute trip.  Do you want to give that up for a 42-minute trip on 97 or probably the same on a shuttle bus? Get real.

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I mean, i wish that testing will go well so trains can resume 55 mph operation. Still, a 35mph train making  2 stops is better than a 20 mph bus making god knows how many stops.

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  • 6 months later...

This ABC 7 News report relays that the operator from last year's Yellow Line crash had alcohol in their system. It says that they had a blood alcohol level of .06, and CTA regulations state the level can't be higher than .02. The report also seems to relay that the operator didn't yet undergo CTA's random drug and alcohol testing because they were only a rail operator for three months at the time. The reported results are from a test done on the operator while in the hospital for their injuries from the crash. CTA steered questions to the NTSB due to the investigation still being active and the feds' resulting protocol.

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59 minutes ago, jajuan said:

This ABC 7 News report relays that the operator from last year's Yellow Line crash had alcohol in their system. It says that they had a blood alcohol level of .06, and CTA regulations state the level can't be higher than .02. The report also seems to relay that the operator didn't yet undergo CTA's random drug and alcohol testing because they were only a rail operator for three months at the time. The reported results are from a test done on the operator while in the hospital for their injuries from the crash. CTA steered questions to the NTSB due to the investigation still being active and the feds' resulting protocol.

While employers can't give out information about personnel, I can almost guarantee that the employee involved in the accident will be fired.   First, he had a blood alcohol reading over the legal limit.  When a person is tested and the results are over the legal limit, a second test gets administered.   Usually that reading comes in a tad bit lower, but if it's still over the legal limit, that is grounds for automatic termination. 

 

The second issue may be the operator may have been a probationary employee.  A major accident resulting in in injury or death may also be cause for automatic termination.   For some companies,  this is true even for a minor accident if it's determined that the accident was presentable,  meaning the operator could have taken action to prevent the accident from happening but failed to do so.

I once had to lose a driver because he came to work "drunk."  He actually came late to work and I assigned his work to other drivers.  I told him to just go home.  He insisted he was given a  certain start time.  O told him I gave him the correct start time but he said he forgot what time I gave him and called back and someone else gave him the wrong start time.  I gave him the benefit of a doubt  and clocked him in but after doing so, I smelled alcohol on his breath.    Just then the field supervisor came in and walked past him  and then asked to speak to me in private.   When he said he smelled alcohol on him, then I knew I could send the driver to the clinic for an alcohol test under the reasonable suspicion rule.  He tested .146 and .144.  

 

That leads me to this.  Did any CTA supervisor come into contact with the operator?   Granted some people will mask their breath with mouthwash  ( which can have alcohol in it) and might elevate a reading on a breathalyzer test.   Or maybe there wasn't enough staffing to allow for a reasonable suspicion test, meaning only one supervisor was available to observe the operator when two was necessary. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/24/2024 at 10:56 AM, artthouwill said:

While employers can't give out information about personnel, I can almost guarantee that the employee involved in the accident will be fired.   First, he had a blood alcohol reading over the legal limit.  When a person is tested and the results are over the legal limit, a second test gets administered.   Usually that reading comes in a tad bit lower, but if it's still over the legal limit, that is grounds for automatic termination. 

 

The second issue may be the operator may have been a probationary employee.

Sun-Times article saying that firing appears almost automatic for both reasons, but CTA can't discipline him while he is on inactive status due to his injuries.

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  • 1 month later...
On 1/6/2024 at 7:44 PM, strictures said:

The NYC problem was caused by them still having emergency stop cords in every car that any loon of a passenger can pull & that's exactly what happened to start it.  CTA got rid of their emergency cords decades ago.

They basically still have the emergency stop chord, but just in a different style though. We call it the cherries..people will pull them down on the bus&train and though it has little effect on the train it still applies the brakes on the bus as well which could result in a jerk. 
 

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