Woman who sued CTA over 2014 Blue Line derailment gets $6.5M

A Cook County jury awarded a woman who was injured when a CTA Blue Line train derailed in 2014 more than $6 million in damages after she sued the Chicago Transit Authority.

Yolanda Montes, 37, was one of thirty-two people who were injured when the blue line train derailed onto the platform and up an escalator at the O’Hare station on March 24, 2014, according to the lawsuit, filed April 29, 2014, in Cook County circuit court. She was awarded $6,654,000 in a jury decision Friday.

Montes was heading to work in the sixth car on the train when it crashed, according to Christopher M. Norem, the attorney representing Montes.

The force of the crash caused her head to strike a metal pole inside the train car and a door, causing injuries to hear head, neck and back, Norem said.