Statement from CTA President Richard Rodriguez
The CTA has approached the investigation from several angles – analyzing bus performance, operator performance and external factors.
The preliminary inspection of Bus #4058 is complete and all bus operating systems appear to perform as designed. No defects have been found that may have contributed to this incident.
- The steering wheel motion was checked on the scene and at the shop and found to respond properly.
- A full inspection of all major bus operating systems was performed. All systems were found to be in good condition and working properly. The inspection included a full review of the thirty day bus repair history together with results of the last 5000 Mile Inspection performed on September 17, 2010. At 5K miles, all mechanisms relating to the safety and performance of the bus are inspected. The review of the bus history and the last routine inspection did not show any steering/handling related defects/repairs.
- The CTA has not noted any steering related issues nor has the manufacturer reported any problems for this model of buses.
Although these preliminary results indicate that there was not a mechanical problem with the bus, in order to do as thorough an investigations as possible, the CTA intended to do further tests that would include disassembling portions of the bus such as the steering equipment. Due to a court order entered on October 13, 2010, however, the CTA has been ordered to preserve the bus in its current condition. This will preclude the CTA from conducting the remainder of its inspection for the time being. In addition, CTA had been working with the authorized distributor of the Event Data Recorder (EDR -black box) to retrieve data from the recorder. That process is also on hold due to the court order.
The bus operator has cooperated fully with the investigation.
While we would like to be providing you with a definite cause, we want to be sure that we conduct as complete an investigation as possible and we will not be able to complete the investigation until we can resume inspecting the bus. CTA has advised the court and the plaintiff’s attorneys that we would like to move forward with the inspection as soon as possible.
We appreciate the way in which passengers on the bus cooperated with our initial inquiries at the scene of the collision and we are grateful that there were not more serious injuries. Safety is of paramount importance and we want to do all we can to finalize this investigation and use lessons learned to improve our overall level of safety.
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