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Driver of O'Hare train derailment fired
00:48 - Source: HLN

Story highlights

Emergency brakes should have stopped the train without her

The crash jolted her awake in time for the lead car to climb a stairway

Of the 32 injured Monday, no one was seriously harmed

CNN  — 

Shuttle buses are carrying airport passengers to and from a nearby Blue Line station until then, a CTA official said.

The operator of the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train jolted awake just in time for her to see the lead car climb the stairs that started not far from where the track ran out, investigator Ted Turpin from the National Transportation and Safety Board said Wednesday.

That was 2:52 a.m. Monday, when most people were in bed. No one was killed, and of the 32 injured, none suffered serious harm.

But emergency braking systems should have stopped the eight-car train without her, Turpin said.

New employee

The driver is a relatively new employee and has been operating trains for just 60 days, the NTSB said.

It wasn’t the first time she has dozed off at the controls, she told investigators. Turpin said she was “very forthcoming” in her admissions.

In February, she slightly overrode a station, leaving the train partially past the platform.

Investigators are checking surveillance video to see if she overshot prior stations.

“She dozed off prior to entering the station,” Turpin said. “She did not awake again until the train hit close to the end of the bumper.”

Brake issue

But her apparent lack of sleep wasn’t the only failure.

If a driver falls asleep and the controls slips out of her hands, the train should stop automatically, Turpin said.

And when the train raced into the airport’s station, it hit a trip arm that activated emergency brakes.

“There is an electrical brake, and there’s a disc brake system on the train, and there’s a third track brake,” Turpin said.

The trip arm set off the first two 41 feet away from the bumper. They engaged and should have halted the train on time. But they didn’t.

Investigators are inspecting the tracks’ and trains’ systems to determine why not.

Man vs. machine: Who should be at the wheel?

CNN’s Kara Devlin contributed to this report