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| A stroller is seen in this photo provided by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308. The union said it believes it is the same stroller involved in the incident. |
Posted: Friday, 06 November 2009 9:17AM
Evidence supports mother's story in CTA toddler incident
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COMMENT ON THIS STORY
Steve Miller Reporting
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- CHICAGO (WBBM) -- The head of the transit workers union says the CTA needs to put conductors back on trains - and he says it also needs to inspect every train's doors following that incident on Monday when a child was apparently dragged in a stroller after doors closed on a Red Line "L" train.
Paint marks on the stroller. That's what CTA spokeswoman Wanda Taylor says investigators found.
"I can confirm there was some paint found on the stroller and a subsequent corresponding scratch on the barrier at the Morse station."
And Chicago Police say that means the mother's story, that the stroller was dragged, checks out.
Robert Kelly is president of the transit union that represents the train operator, and he says he's concerned the CTA will try to point the finger at the operator.
But Kelly says the CTA needs to put conductors back on "L" trains. That an operator isn't enough.
"Do we have to wait until someone dies before we put a set of eyes back there?"
Kelly says the CTA also needs to look at why the door closed with a stroller lodged in it.
The CTA says the investigation is still going on.
Kelly says the CTA needs to look at every train. "I mean if this stroller was dragged with the doors closed, you've got to look at every train now and say, if it happened with one, it can happen with the next one?"
Chicago Police looking into Monday's incident at the Morse stop on the Red Line say that statements from both the CTA train operator and the mother of the 22-month old girl appear to be credible.
The mother of the 22-month-old girl says the "L" train dragged the stroller until it hit a metal barrier.
And Chicago Police spokesman Roderick Drew says that checks out.
"It appears that the stroller was dragged outside of the CTA car and it did make contact, not only with the outside part of the car but with the barrier."
And Drew says the operator's statement that she had no indication of a problem apparently checks out.
Still there are questions: How did the stroller remain apparently unscathed - but the train and the barrier show signs of being hit? And if the stroller was being dragged, caught in the door, how did it end up inside the train - and found later on a platform several stops down the line?
Drew says police still want to talk to some witnesses, and he says they're reviewing new police camera video from nearby.
The mother of the toddler is Ebere Ozonwu, and her pastor David Philemon has been speaking for her. Philemon tells Newsradio 780 that today - Thursday - Ozonwu is better and so is her daughter Rachel.
Philemon says Ozonwu is out of the hospital after suffering emotional and physical pain.
Ozonwu told Newsradio 780 in a conversation on her cell phone that "Rachel is fine."
But Ebere Ozonwu told us, "I'm confused right now. But I'm getting better, thank God. I don't have the tenacity to talk right now. I'm sorry."
She did not say why she was at the hospital.
A woman who told a TV reporter that she saw the "L" train operator stop the train, then come back with a stroller and put it outside the motorman's compartment. Then take it into the compartment. Then when the train got to Thorndale, the woman says, the operator put the stroller on the platform.
Kelly told WBBM earlier this week: "She tells me she walked through the train at at approximately the sixth car, she found four kids playing with a stroller...
"She took the stroller from the kids and they were being very rowdy, according to her, and she put the kids off the train as well as the stroller."
That was at Thorndale, the witness says.
But Kelly says the stroller was actually found one stop south at Bryn Mawr.
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