Wednesday, February 04, 2004 :::
The Tribune (requires registration) reports:Two Chicago Transit Authority trains collided at low speed during the rush hour Tuesday, sending about 45 people to area hospitals for minor injuries and delaying thousands of travelers.The accident took place on elevated tracks just north of the Merchandise Mart when a Purple Line train rear-ended a Brown Line train, causing them to lock together, CTA president Frank Kruesi said.
...
Confused cell phone conversations with friends and family left many thinking their train had derailed, although that never happened. And some passengers had to wait more than two hours before disembarking.
Well, we were also concerned because the train was leaning, though we were later told that was because we were still close to the curve as the train heads north from Merchandise Mart; it's banked. We were momentarily concerned the train would fall off the elevated tracks.As with almost everyone on my car, I was seated; I was in a seat facing backward. We came to a stop, sat there a few seconds, and then lurched forward, so that I hit my knees on the seat in front of me. I was one of those passengers who had to wait more than two hours to leave; the purple line passengers apparently were taken back to Merchandise Mart much sooner, and some of the brown line passengers got to exit the back of the train and walk along the tracks back to that station, but we were ultimately told to sit down again and, eventually, they pulled the train up to the Chicago Avenue stop, where we got off. From there we got onto busses — my fellow passengers were helping the bus driver navigate, as this was not a normal route he was driving — and I made it home right about at 9:00, whereupon I turned on FOX to see that we were the top story on the local news. One of the passengers commented (on the news) that the train wasn't terribly crowded; I don't know which train he was on, but the Brown line wasn't terribly crowded, probably because there was another train shortly ahead of us. I just missed that one; if I'd left work 30 seconds later I would have caught it, gone to my Swedish lesson, and still have made it home earlier than I did.
::: posted by dWj at 10:03 AM
