'Extremely Tired' Driver of Blue Line Train May Have 'Dozed Off' Before O'Hare Crash, Union Leader Says

A top CTA union leader says the driver of the Blue Line train that derailed at O'Hare International Airport "might have dozed off" because "she was extremely tired."

Robert Kelly, head of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, told reporters at a news conference Monday afternoon that "she worked a lot of hours" prior to the eight-car train jumping the platform and plowing up an escalator, injuring 32 people aboard the train just before 3 a.m.

Six of the injuries were deemed serious but none were life-threatening.

The station will not re-open until the investigation is completed, possibly Tuesday. National Transportation Safety Board investigators are on the scene. The train cars remain on the escalator, reports the Tribune. Whether the driver contributed to the cause is a focus of the probe.

“The train is not going to go anywhere for the foreseeable future,” said Tim DePaepe, a railroad accident investigator. “It’s not going anywhere today. We need to examine the train and the position it’s in prior to its movement.”

DePaepe said event recorders and video footage will be reviewed to determine the train's speed as it hit the platform.

Chicago Fire Department officials told the Sun-Times the motorwoman "walking and talking" after the crash.

One passenger said he heard the recorded voice announce the final stop but the train kept going. After a "boom," Dion Stokes told the paper, the lights went out for a few seconds and people throughout the car began screaming. “I never seen nothing like this — this is like stuff you only see on TV."

Stokes was near the front of the train and flew from one side of the car to the other. Stokes, 21, hurt his ankle.

Milka Overton, a 26-year-old TSA agent on her way to work, told the Tribune she also was hurt in the crash.