According to federal investigators, the driver of the CTA train that crashed had dozed off at the controls during a different CTA run on February 1. That driver was given a written warning according to the transit authority after they say she claimed only to have momentarily “closed her eyes.”
Haywood has posted pictures of herself at a CTA stop with the notation: “Come on 9:00 boring platform no action.” It was posted when she was working as a rail flagman, which is how these current CTA records still have her listed, at a pay of $13.31 per hour. She was hired about a year ago and attended train motorman school in December.
The transit union president says they will fight for the driver to stay on the job but he would not disclose or comment on the driver’s identity.
“This girl is torn to pieces over this. . . I walked away, actually, with a new, totally different amount of respect for this woman. She couldn’t lie if she wanted to,” said Robert Kelly, president, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308.
After the news conference, Kelly told the I-Team he was unaware of Haywood’s most recent arrest, on a misdemeanor gambling charge last September when she was employed by the CTA. That criminal charge dismissed in November, the month before she began motorman training.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=9483808