Union Boss: Stroller-Stealing Train Story Doesn't Add Up
Photo appears to show stroller with little damage
By BJ LUTZ
Updated 10:18 PM CST, Wed, Nov 4, 2009
"There's something not adding up here."
That's what Amalgamated Transit Union President Robert Kelly said Wednesday about the story of a child in her stroller being carried away by a Chicago Transit Authority train on Monday, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The current story from the mother, witnesses and police is that the mother had been pushing the stroller into the train when its doors closed and the train began moving. The stroller was dragged through the Morse Street station until it struck a barrier and the end of the platform, tossing the baby out.
But the stroller was turned into a CTA employee at the Berwyn station, five stops away, and appears to be largely intact in a photograph Kelly released Wednesday.
Kelly said a stroller of that type could not have withstood the impact of hitting the barrier at the end of the platform, as had been earlier reported. And it would have been damaged again when it hit a barrier at the next station.
As for Baby Rachel, who was picked up from the trackbed...
"The baby wasn't crying," Kelly said, according to CBS 2. "I don't buy that."
The operator of the train told union officials Tuesday night that she followed standard operating procedures by visually checking the doors before setting the train in motion. She's on unpaid leave while the CTA investigates.
CTA tests on the doors showed that the "bounce back" mechanism was working properly.
For now, Kelly isn't placing blame, but said that someone isn't telling the whole story.
"I'm going to tell you on the record, I don't believe this whole thing," he said.
First Published: Nov 4, 2009 9:00 PM CST
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