Questions Go Unanswered Over Chicago Commuter Rail Crash that Injured 48 People

Important questions still linger over the crash of an unmanned commuter train in Chicago but the government shutdown means nobody is around to answer them.

The federal investigation into the crash of an unmanned Chicago commuter train is continuing, but the government shutdown has meant there’s nobody around to talk about it.

At the end of last month an unmanned commuter train mysteriously moved onto a rail line in Chicago and hit a train with passengers on board, injuring at least 48 people, reported CNN.

Last week Tim DePaepe of the National Transportation Safety Board said the agency’s investigators were considered “essential” and would be on the scene. He said they would not be furloughed as part of the government shutdown that began last Tuesday.

The Huffington Post reported on how callers to the NTSB public affairs office last week were told by a recording that “due to lapse in funding” the office is closed.

As a railroad accident attorney working in Norfolk, a city with a light rail transit system, I’m concerned about how this accident occurred in Chicago.

It is bizarre and worrying that out-of-service train rolled about a half mile before crashing into an occupied train in Forest Park on the Chicago Transit Authority’s blue line.

Fortunately reports indicated none of the passengers suffered serious injuries. It could have been so much worse.

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