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   From: carbonight@att.com   
      
   CHICAGO (AP) — An emergency track-side braking system activated   
   but failed to stop a Chicago commuter train from jumping the   
   tracks and barreling to the top of an escalator at O'Hare   
   International Airport, a federal investigator said Tuesday.   
      
   The events that led to Monday's accident, which occurred around   
   3 a.m. and injured more than 30 passengers, might have begun   
   with the train operator dozing off toward the end of her shift,   
   according the union representing transit workers. But Tuesday's   
   announcement that a piece of emergency safety equipment might   
   have failed was the first indication the accident could have   
   been caused by human error and mechanical failure.   
      
   National Transportation Safety Board investigator Ted Turpin   
   said a preliminary review showed the train was traveling at the   
   correct speed of 25 mph as it entered the station. Investigators   
   said they have not yet determined whether the operator ever   
   applied the in-cab brake.   
      
   Turpin, who is in charge of the investigation, said an automatic   
   emergency braking system located on the tracks was activated but   
   failed to stop the train as it burst onto the platform.   
      
   "It activated," Turpin said of the emergency system. "That's all   
   we know factually. Now, whether it did it in time or not, that's   
   an analysis that we have to figure out."   
      
   A team from the NTSB was also exploring how rested the train   
   operator was before starting her shift and whether rules   
   governing overtime had been violated, after a union official   
   suggested she might have dozed off.   
      
   They planned to interview the train operator Tuesday afternoon.   
      
   "We're going to ask probably the operator how they felt ...   
   because we always take into consideration the fatigue factor.   
   It's one of the things we do investigate," Turpin said.   
      
   The operator, whom officials have not identified, was off duty   
   for about 17 hours before starting work around 8 p.m. Sunday but   
   had recently put in a lot of overtime, Amalgamated Transit Union   
   Local 308 President Robert Kelly said Monday.   
      
   "I know she works a lot — as a lot of our members do," he said.   
   "They gotta earn a living. ... She was extremely tired."   
      
   Kelly said the operator took standard drug and alcohol tests   
   after the derailment and that she assured him they were not an   
   issue.   
      
   Asked whether she may have nodded off, Kelly responded: "The   
   indication is there. Yes."   
      
   Federal investigators hoped to turn the scene over to local   
   officials later Tuesday to begin removing the train from the   
   escalator at the underground Chicago Transit Authority station.   
      
   The train is designed to stop if operators become incapacitated   
   and their hand slips off the spring-loaded controls. Kelly   
   speculated that, upon impact, inertia might have thrown the   
   operator against the hand switch, accelerating it onto the   
   escalator.   
      
   Transit officials refused to discuss what other safety   
   mechanisms are in place around the transit system while the   
   investigation was ongoing.   
      
   Federal safety regulators keep a close watch on longer distance,   
   city-to-city passenger rail and freight operations. But federal   
   safety oversight of transit systems within cities has been   
   weaker, and responsibility for any technology to prevent crashes   
   and control speeds has been left to local authorities.   
      
   There are efforts to grant a safety oversight role to the   
   Federal Transit Administration, which has primarily been a   
   funding agency, said Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of the   
   National Association of Railroad Passengers, a Washington-based   
   advocacy group.   
      
   In the meantime, local transit agencies like Chicago's make   
   their own choices about how to spend scarce funding, juggling   
   the needs of safely maintaining systems that are a century old   
   in some places with pressure to expand systems to meet demand.   
      
   "It's always going to be a tension, but it's a tension that   
   becomes more pronounced when there's not a healthy level of   
   investment in both maintenance and ... capacity expansion,"   
   Jeans-Gail said.   
      
   Investigators have also been scrutinizing the train's brakes,   
   track signals and other potential factors while reviewing video   
   footage from more than 40 cameras in the station and on the   
   train, Turpin said.   
      
   The station remained closed Tuesday, and CTA buses took   
   passengers to and from O'Hare to the next station on the line.   
   Transport officials have not said when full Blue Line service   
   will resume at O'Hare.   
      
   Also Tuesday, attorneys for one of the injured passengers filed   
   a negligence lawsuit in Cook County court against the CTA   
   seeking more than $50,000 in damages. A CTA spokeswoman said the   
   agency doesn't comment on pending litigation.   
      
   http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Emergency-brake-failed-to-   
   stop-Chicago-train-5346587.php?cmpid=rrhoustontx   
      
         
      
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