Operator in O'Hare crash had fallen asleep at controls before

NTSB: Operator in O'Hare crash had fallen asleep at controls before
The operator of the CTA train that jumped the platform and climbed an escalator at O'Hare has admitted dozing off at the controls, and had been admonished
last month when she also fell asleep and missed a stop, officials said today.
The new details of the investigation were disclosed this morning by Ted Turpin, the lead investigator of the crash for the National Transportation Safety
Board, after officials interviewed the operator.
“She did admit that she dozed off prior to entering the station, and she did not awake again until the train hit close to the end of the bumper,” Turpin
said.

“This time, she woke up when she hit,” He said.

Turpin could not say why the train did not stop automatically.
Monday was not the first time the operator fell asleep at the controls, Turpin said. “She did tell us that, in February, she dozed off and passed a station
without stopping. CTA became aware of that almost immediately, and a supervisor admonished her and had a discussion with her,” Turpin said.

In February, the operator was "just a little past the station," when she woke up and realized she was too far past the station open the doors, Turbin said.

The eight-car train shot onto the platform and up the escalator at the O'Hare station shortly before 3 a.m. Monday, injuring more than 30 people.  Experts
have said people would have been killed had the accident happened later.

The CTA says it intends to take disciplinary action against the operator, which could include termination, and will do so when the investigation is complete,
according to spokesman Brian Steele.

The agency hadn’t heard about the previous “dozing off” incident as reported today by the NTSB.

The operator had not told them that she had dozed off in February – only that she “closed her eyes for a moment” and overshot a station platform by one
car, Steele said.

The operator, he said, was issued a written violation at that time.

“Had we known she had dozed off, there would have been stronger discipline,”