Union head on mom's CTA story: Why does stroller appear undamaged?
As CTA and Chicago police continue to investigate the incident in which a baby stroller reportedly got caught in an L train door and knocked a toddler to the gravel track bed, the head of the train operator's union questioned why the stroller appears undamaged.
"I don't want to call the woman a liar, but I have a hard time believing the story happened the way she claims," said Robert Kelly, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308.
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times/ABC)
Kelly also wondered why, if the stroller was dragged by the train into a metal guardrail at the end of the Morse Avenue Red Line platform, why there were no marks on the guardrail or scuff marks on the platform.
And how did the umbrella-type stroller end up five stops away at the Berwyn station, he asked. It was turned in by a passenger, but had been missed by two examinations of the train.
The toddler's mother, Ebere Ozonwu, told police the doors closed on the stroller containing her 22-month old daughter Rachel Monday evening. The stroller turned sideways and the toddler came out, bounced off the platform, and fell onto the track bed about ten feet beyond the platform, Ozonwu told police.
Rachel was released from Children's Memorial Hospital Tuesday evening, and was doing "fine" Wednesday, said Ozonwu, who did not want to talk further.
A preliminary CTA investigation showed the doors were working properly. The doors have sensitive edges that are supposed to open when pressure is applied.
However, train doors could work properly but still close and lock on a narrow object. A May 2009 CTA request for bids for retrofitting train doors specify that the doors should close and lock on a one-inch-wide block, but should spring open if they strike a two-inch-wide block.
This specification could allow train doors, if working properly, to close on the wheel or handle of a small stroller, but not on the body of a stroller.
The train's operator, who had three children and has held her job since 2003, had no prior incidents. She's off without pay pending the
investigation.
The operator has said that she did not see anyone caught in the doors and had gotten the proper signal that the doors were closed.
Kelly said there are "always door problems" on CTA trains.
The car, which is now out of service pending the investigation, is a 2600 Budd Co. car built between 1981 and 1986.
Contributing: Frank Main