June 04--The CTA says a bus driver involved in a fatal crash on Michigan Avenue came to a stop at a red light on eastbound Lake Street, then inexplicably drove through it into Michigan Avenue traffic, killing one woman and injuring seven others and himself.
As family and friends grieved for Aimee Coath, the 51-year-old Flossmoor woman killed in the Tuesday evening crash, police and transit officials continued to investigate why the bus driver ran the light after stopping.
As of late Wednesday, that question remained unanswered as uneasy pedestrians passed by the scene of the crash.
Donald Barnes, 48, a part-time driver who started at the CTA in September, was issued two traffic citations for the crash. He had been driving the empty accordion-style bus toward the first stop of his route before running the light, plowing into traffic, jumping the curb during a left turn onto Michigan Avenue and striking pedestrians on an open plaza, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said.
"We don't know the full circumstances yet," Steele said, adding that it was too early to talk about disciplinary action against the driver.
Barnes could not be reached for comment. The Chicago Police Department's major accidents unit is investigating the crash, a police spokeswoman said.
Upon hearing of Tuesday's fatal crash, Stephen Schlickman, former executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority, said his mind flashed back to a 1985 crash involving a CTA bus and a car carrying seven young people to a Bruce Springsteen concert at Soldier Field. All seven passengers in the car died.
This more recent crash is another example of how volatile the city can be for people trying to navigate downtown streets, Schlickman said.
"Whenever you have such a dense travel environment, the margin for safety is not that great," said Schlickman, now director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "It's a very dynamic situation. People have to be vigilant -- everyone does."
CTA bus drivers have a documented history of running red lights.
A 2013 Tribune analysis of red light camera tickets revealed that CTA buses had been ticketed 4,529 times from Jan. 1, 2007, to Sept. 4, 2013. In past interviews, CTA officials have said such numbers have to be put into context with the considerable mileage and time logged by the buses on city streets.
There is no red light camera at the intersection of Lake and Michigan, or anywhere in the Loop. On Wednesday, Steele said it's too early for "conjecture" on whether such a deterrent might have helped prevent the accident.
"The operator had stopped at this red light and -- for reasons not yet known -- the vehicle proceeded into the intersection," Steele said.
He stressed that traveling by bus remains "very safe," pointing to statistics on the CTA website that showed its bus drivers averaged about 0.4 safety-related incidents per 100,000 miles last year, a statistic that includes accidents that aren't the bus driver's fault.
Before Tuesday's accident, Barnes had only one other incident as a CTA bus driver when he backed a bus into a taxi in November, causing minor damage to the cab's front bumper, Steele said. No one was injured, and Barnes was not cited for the incident.
Though Barnes had only nine months' experience with CTA, he had a commercial driver's license with endorsements for air brakes and passengers -- a requirement for CTA bus drivers, Steele said. He also underwent the customary five weeks of CTA bus driver training.
Steele said he didn't know Barnes' driving history before working with CTA.
According to the Illinois secretary of state's office, the bus driver had a clean driving record.
In its April report on last year's Blue Line train derailment, the National Transportation Safety Board identified the CTA's failure to properly oversee the schedule of the sleep-deprived operator, who had been employed for a year, as one of the reasons for the incident.
But Steele said fatigue from overscheduling doesn't appear to have been a factor in Tuesday's crash. Barnes began his routes at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, but he had a considerable break before his afternoon routes began at 2:30 p.m. He had logged a total of about four hours of driving before the crash.
As part of the ongoing investigation, Steele said, authorities are still examining video from multiple cameras inside the bus. Steele said it was not unusual for the express bus to be empty at that location. It started its route at State and Harrison streets and was due to make its first of three downtown stops at Wacker Drive and Michigan.
On Michigan Plaza near where the crash occurred, a number of pedestrians were shaken by the tragedy and said they planned to be more careful during their work commutes.
Tess Kostiner, 25, returned to her apartment in the 100 block of North Michigan mere minutes before the crash Tuesday and said she heard screaming from the street while tidying up her room.
"I walk right where it happened. I still have chills from it," Kostiner said. "I try to be careful, but after having an incident like this happen right where I live, I'm definitely going to be more cautious."
Tim Karas, 47, said he was hit by a private vehicle three years ago in Chicago, an incident that made him re-evaluate how he handles himself downtown.
"It knocked the tendon off my knee, which had to be reattached," Karas said. "That just made me stop and be more careful walking around downtown."
Brendon Perret, an employee at the French Trade Commission on North Michigan, said he takes the No. 136 CTA bus route every day to work and has never felt unsafe. He said the crash was tragic but that it could have involved any type of vehicle.
"It's unnerving, but there is always a risk, even on the sidewalk," Perret said. "I don't think you should change your daily habits off a fluke accident."
jhilkevitch@tribpub.com
gtrotter@tribpub.com
Twitter @GregTrotterTrib
