CHICAGO (WLS) — This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of one of the worst train crashes in recent Chicago Transit Authority history.

On November 16, 2023, a CTA Yellow Line train collided with snow removal equipment that was training on the tracks during a clear morning.

What went wrong with train 593? The ABC7 I-Team has new records that point to some answers, including a list of factors from an outdated brake design on the train and a residue on the tracks caused by crushed leaves.

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The experience of that day still haunts some of the passengers on board a year ago, including Phillip Rogers.

“One minute I’m sitting there, everything’s fine, then BANG. I hit the window of the train with my head and shattered it,” says Rogers.

In the haze of what would be diagnosed as a concussion, Rogers says he was able to snap a photo of the broken window he hit his head on that November morning.

Rogers was in the second car of train 593 and said he immediately began helping other shaken and injured passengers.

“It was just kind of chaos,” Rogers said. “I was anxious to get off the train, there was a lot of blood.”

Rogers was one of 38 people injured, according to Chicago Fire Department officials that day, including children and CTA workers. No one was killed, but six people were seriously injured.

Steven Helmer and his wife were on train 593 that November morning, visiting their daughter and twin granddaughters. The family was being driven downtown when they said the unexpected and unthinkable happened.

“There was just a loud boom towards the front of the car and all of a sudden we were all either flying in the air or thrown to the floor,” Helmer said. “We were blown up and the twins were in a pram. Fortunately, they were tied to a cart, so they also flipped over when the collision occurred.”

Helmer said his entire family suffered injuries from the accident: he had to have surgery on his elbow and his wife’s teeth were damaged.

Helmer and Rogers are among the survivors of the crash who are suing the CTA, claiming the agency’s negligence led to the 593 train crash.

In court filings, the CTA denied negligence.

“This was a very, very bad accident,” Rogers told the I-Team. “I kept thinking, ‘How did this happen?’

For the past year, the I-Team has been working to answer that question.

Repeated requests to speak with CTA President Dorval Carter, Jr., including a personal request by certified mail, were all ignored.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says its investigation into the crash could take up to another year. But through the NTSB, the I-Team obtained hundreds of documents from regulators and investigators looking for clues.

In an initial post-accident investigation report, the CTA’s chief engineer concluded that the train’s signaling system should have alerted the train operator to begin braking earlier, allowing a greater stopping distance before colliding with the equipment of snow plow.

However, this did not happen because it was based on outdated procedures.

“(T)The stopping distance design of the 1970s did not match the current CTA stopping distance criteria,” the report notes. “The maximum safe braking distance that was present would only have resulted in a ‘safe stop’ if the braking conditions had been close to perfect.”

But conditions that day weren’t perfect, compromised by the train operator’s obstructed line of sight of what lay ahead in a bend in the tracks, as well as “crushed leaves,” according to the CTA investigation.

CTA staff included in their report a photo showing that “residues of leaf material were ‘crushed’ into (train) off the rails.”

Even though the train’s emergency brakes were applied, the CTA’s chief engineer determined, “The tracks on the down ramp near the collision site appear to have been compromised … due to a contaminant believed to be associated with leaves crushed”.

Professor PS Sriraj, director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, reviewed the findings and says there was not just one cause for the crash, but many.

“This is a confluence of many different factors that came together at exactly the wrong time,” Sriraj said. “We have the problem of stopping distance, we have leaf debris, we have obstructed vision and the most unforgivable is that the snowplow is on the same track as the train.”

CTA staff should have known about the snowplow training on the tracks that day, given a “Railway Service Bulletin” that was sent the day before and newly obtained by the I-Team.

The bulletin, which CTA shared with NTSB investigators, was sent to personnel “all involved,” informing employees that the snow locomotive was “authorized to operate on the Yellow Line” during the accident.

Attorney Richard Pullano, who represents Stephen Helmer, said the fact that the snowplow was practicing on live tracks was most troubling.

“I think when you look at (TACs) conduct, I think the best description is gross negligence,” Pullano said. “It was egregious. It was a catastrophic failure of a multitude of events that should never have happened. It shocks the conscience”.

These accident factors are not the only points under investigation.

As the I-Team first reported last monththe train operator behind the controls of Train 593 had alcohol in his system at levels above what is allowed by federal regulations.

The I-Team found that detail buried in an NTSB crash report.

An agency spokesman said that while its investigation is ongoing, “they have not found that the operator’s actions contributed to the accident.”

Attorney Joseph Murphy, who represents many of the injured passengers on Train 593, including Rogers, isn’t buying it.

“I disagree with the NTSB,” Murphy said. “If you’re responsible for busing or transporting hundreds or thousands of passengers a day and you have a slight delay that could be caused by alcohol, that’s human error.”

Injured passengers who spoke to the I-Team were upset that it took nearly a year for details about the train operator’s blood alcohol level to become public and that they were offended that they didn’t hear from the CTA itself.

“The CTA needs to be held accountable here,” Murphy said.

The CTA referred all I-Team questions about the crash investigation to the NTSB, but said the operator of Train 593 that day may face those breathalyzer tests when they return to work.

“The operator in this case is currently on inactive status due to his injuries from the accident,” Gonzales told the I-Team. “Employment action, if any, will occur upon return to active status.”

In response to questions from the I-Team about the outdated braking distance design, CTA spokesman Manny Gonzales said, “Design calculations for all lines installed 20 or more years ago have been reviewed and validated to ensure safe braking distances”.

Regarding the issue of leaf debris being involved in the train’s inability to stop that day, Gonzales said, “CTA has begun an active cleanup program that is seasonal and related to leaf debris. In addition, we reevaluate the equipment used for this. type of work”.

“We have also provided additional training to staff specifically to inspect any debris build-up on the trails and report it properly so it can be addressed,” Gonzales said.

Rogers told the I-Team that he still relies on the CTA to get around town, but is now very cautious about his safety.

“I’m not afraid to tackle, but I’m cautious about staying near anything I can hit my head on,” Rogers told the I-Team. “He did something bad in my life.”