New details uncovered on what caused a CTA Yellow Line train to crash one year ago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- This weekend marks one year since one of the worst train accidents in Chicago Transit Authority recent history.

On November 16, 2023, a CTA Yellow Line train collided with snowplow equipment training on the tracks during a clear morning.

What went wrong with Train 593? The ABC7 I-Team has new records that point to some answers, including a list of factors from an outdated braking design on the train, and a residue on the tracks caused by crushed leaves.

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The experience that day still haunts some of the passengers onboard a year ago, including Phillip Rogers.

"One minute I'm just sitting there, everything's fine, and then BANG. I hit the train window with my head and I shattered it," Rogers recounts.

In the fog of what would be diagnosed as a concussion, Rogers says he managed to snap a photo of the smashed window his head hit on that November morning.

Rogers was in the second car of Train 593, and he said he immediately started helping other shaken and injured passengers.

"It was just kind of chaos," Rogers said. "I was anxious to get out of the train, there was a lot of blood."

Rogers was one of 38 people hurt, according to Chicago Fire Dept. officials that day, including children and CTA workers. No one was killed, but six people were seriously hurt.

Steven Helmer and his wife were on Train 593 that November morning, visiting their daughter and twin granddaughters. The family was headed downtown when they said the unexpected and unthinkable happened.

"There was just a loud boom towards the front of the train car, and all of a sudden, we were all either flying in the air or thrown on the floor," said Helmer. "We were thrown in the air, and the twins were in a stroller. They were strapped into a stroller, fortunately, so they were tipped up and over when the collision happened."

Helmer said his whole family had injuries from the crash: he had to have surgery on his elbow, and his wife's teeth were damaged.

Helmer and Rogers are among the crash survivors who are suing the CTA, claiming the agency's negligence led to Train 593's crash.

On November 16, 2023, a CTA Yellow Line train collided with snowplow equipment training on the tracks during a clear morning. What went wrong with Train 593?

In court filings, the CTA has denied negligence.

"This was a really, really bad accident," Rogers told the I-Team. "I just kept thinking, 'How did this happen?'"

For the past year, the I-Team has been working to answer that question.

Repeated requests to speak with CTA President Dorval Carter, Jr., including a personal request by Certified Mail, have all been ignored.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says its investigation of the crash could take up to another year to complete. But through the NTSB, the I-Team obtained hundreds of documents from regulators and investigators searching for clues.

In an initial post-accident engineering investigation report, CTA's chief engineer concluded that the train's signal system should have warned the train operator to begin braking earlier, allowing a greater distance to stop before colliding with the snowplow equipment.

That didn't happen though because it was relying on outdated procedures.

"[T]he braking distance design from the 1970's did not match CTA's current braking distance criteria," the report notes. "The maximum safe braking distance that was present would only have resulted in a 'safe stop' had the braking conditions been near perfect."

But conditions that day weren't perfect, compromised by the train operator's obstructed line-of-sight of what was ahead in a curve of the tracks, as well as "crushed leaves," according to the CTA investigation.

CTA staff included in their report a photo that shows "residue of leaf materials had been 'crushed' into the [train] rail head."

Even though the train's emergency brakes were engaged, CTA's chief engineer determined, "The rails on the downhill grade in approach to the collision site appear to have been compromised... due to a contaminate believed to be associated with crushed leaves."

P.S. Sriraj, Ph.D. is the director of the University of Illinois Chicago's Urban Transportation Center, and reviewed the CTA's initial findings. Sriraj says there was not a single cause for the accident, but many.

"This is a confluence of many different factors that all came together at the exact wrong time," Sriraj said. "We have the braking distance issue, we have the leaf residue, we have the sight being obstructed, and the most unpardonable thing is the snow plow being on the same track as the train."

CTA staff should have known about the snowplow training on the tracks that day, given a "Rail Service Bulletin" that was sent out the day before, and newly obtained by the I-Team.

The bulletin, which the CTA shared with NTSB investigators, was sent to "all concerned" staff, notifying employees that the snow locomotive was "authorized to operate on the Yellow Line" during the time of the crash.

Attorney Richard Pullano, who represents Stephen Helmer, said the fact that the snowplow was training on live tracks is most disturbing.

"I think that when you look at [the CTA's] conduct, I think the best description is gross negligence," Pullano said. "It was egregious. It was a catastrophic failure of a multitude of events that should have never occurred. It shocks the conscience."

Those crash factors aren't the only points under investigation.

As the I-Team was first to report last month, the train operator behind the controls of Train 593 had alcohol in his system at levels beyond what is allowed by federal regulations.

The I-Team found that detail buried in an NTSB report on the crash.

A spokesperson for the agency said while its investigation is ongoing, they "have not found that the operator's actions contributed to the accident."

Attorney Joseph Murphy, who represents many of Train 593's injured passengers including Rogers, doesn't buy it.

"I respectfully disagree with the NTSB," Murphy said. "If you're responsible for busing around or conducting around hundreds or thousands of passengers a day, and you have a slight delay that might be caused by alcohol, that's human error."

Injured passengers that spoke with the I-Team were upset that it took nearly a year for details about the train operator's blood-alcohol levels to become public, and that they were offended they weren't hearing it from the CTA itself.

"The CTA needs to be held accountable here," Murphy said.

The CTA directed all I-Team questions about the crash investigation to the NTSB, but said Train 593's operator that day may face discipline over those alcohol tests when they return to work.

"The operator, in this case, is currently on inactive status due to his injuries from the crash," Gonzales told the I-Team. "Employment action, if any, will occur upon his return to active status."

In response to the I-Team's questions about the outdated braking distance design, Manny Gonzales, a spokesperson for the CTA said, "The design calculations for all lines installed 20 or more years ago have been reviewed and validated to ensure safe braking distances."

As for the problem of leaf residue factoring into the train's inability to stop that day, Gonzales said, "The CTA began an active cleaning program that is seasonal and tied to the leaf debris. In addition, we are re-evaluating equipment utilized for this type of work."

"We have also provided additional training to personnel specifically for inspecting any build-up of debris on tracks and how to properly report so it can be addressed," Gonzales said.

Rogers told the I-Team he still relies on the CTA to get around the city, but he's now extra cautious about his safety.

"I'm not afraid to get on it, but, I'm cautious about like sitting near anything that I can hit my head on," Rogers told the I-Team. "It did do some damage in my life."