After Yellow Line crash, Illinois Senate clears bill requiring transit agencies to make safety recommendations public

A measure passed Friday by the Illinois Senate would require the state and city transportation agencies to make public annual reports about federal safety recommendations — a response to a November CTA train crash and derailment that sent 19 people to hospitals.

Illinois Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, sponsored the legislation that would require reports from the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Regional Transit Authority, the Chicago Transit Authority and Metra that detail rail safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board made in the past 12 months, as well as the status of their implementation by Dec. 31 of each year.

The reports must be made public through an online portal on the transit agency’s website, as well as the Illinois General Assembly’s site.

The Illinois Senate approved the measure unanimously. It must still pass the Illinois House.

“Rail accidents can be prevented if our rail transit systems are regularly implementing federal safety recommendations and keeping those up to date and viewable to the riding public,” Simmons said in a statement after the bill’s passage. “I want rail transit riders to feel safe as they commute.”

In response to the legislation, the CTA in March told the Sun-Times in an email that formal NTSB recommendations and agency responses are already considered public documents and are available on the NTSB’s website. The transit agency did not take a position on the measure but said, the “CTA is happy to provide copies of its regular NTSB status reports to any interested entity.”

The NTSB released its preliminary report on the Yellow Line crash in December but did not rule on the cause of the crash. Federal investigators have said they’re looking at several factors in the crash, including debris on the tracks that impeded braking and incorrect braking distance estimates.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy in December said the CTA informed her agency it would reduce maximum train speeds on the Yellow Line from 55 mph to 35 mph. It would be further reduced, to 25 mph, in the area near the Howard station where the train slammed into a snowplow on the track Nov. 16.

The Yellow Line was closed for seven weeks after the collision that critically injured three people, including the operator, who “did not do anything wrong” according to the NTSB’s preliminary investigation, Homendy said.

The operator knew the plow was on the tracks for a training exercise and even had passed it on an earlier run before the crash, which occurred about 10:30 a.m. on a clear, 61-degree day, Homendy said.

But the operator didn’t know the plow’s exact location, and engaging the train’s emergency brake systems slowed the train only partially — from 54 mph to 27 mph at impact, the NTSB noted in its initial report. The collision occurred just after a bend that may have reduced the operator’s visibility down the track.

Damage to the Yellow Line train and other CTA equipment was estimated at $8.7 million, according to the NTSB. At least seven lawsuits have been filed against the CTA regarding the crash.

Contributing: David Struett, Mitchell Armentrout