Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Big questions were swirling Wednesday around the story of the baby who had a close encounter with some CTA train doors and ended up on the tracks.

The head of the Chicago Transit Authority's transit workers' union said that photos of the stroller reportedly involved in the incident raised troubling questions about the story.

Amalgamated Transit Union President Robert Kelly said the account of what happened is troubling on a number of fronts. He said someone handed over a stroller to officials.

So if it is the stroller -- and at this point Kelly said that no other stroller has been recovered -- the question is: how could it have been dragged by a train and smashed into metal bars, yet be in remarkably good condition?

Then there's the question of the baby girl.

"The baby wasn't crying," Kelly said. "I don't buy that."

So could the baby's mother have fabricated the story and led the entire city on a wild goose chase? "I hope not. I really hope not," Kelly said. "But, there's something not adding up here and my personal opinion is, I'm going to tell you on the record, I don't believe this whole thing."

The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Red Line's Morse station in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Witnesses told police the child's mother and the child were rushing to catch a southbound train and they ran up the stairs to the platform. They tried to board but the train's door closed onto the stroller with the child in it -- becoming stuck -- and the train began moving while the mother was still on the platform, police said.

The mother told police she ran after the train holding onto the stroller but she fell. She saw the stroller turn sideways and the child's head strike the platform several times as the child was dragged by the train, police said.

Witnesses heard a woman scream and say, "The train took my baby!'' according to police, who said the child -- who was not strapped into the stroller -- was thrown from the stroller and fell to the ground onto the gravel track bed.

Police say the doors of the CTA train closed before the mother and toddler were able to get on. The stroller got caught between the doors.

All the mother could do was scream for help, while running next to the train as she watched her 22-month-old daughter leave her.

"It probably dragged her 50 to 75 feet along the platform, the stroller, with the baby in it, until it hit the guardrail at the end," said witness Joel Weinberg.

He said at that point, the baby was thrown from the stroller. He ran towards the guardrail and saw the baby on the gravel, right next to the tracks.

The mother had jumped down to get her child. Joel took the baby from her arms, bringing the child up to the platform.

When asked about the condition of the baby, Joel Weinberg said, "It seemed fine at first. She wasn't screaming or crying like you'd expect, but as soon as Rebecca got her, she started throwing up all over the place and it was red. So a little bit of panic there."

The couple later found out the child may have been given some cough medicine.

"When you realize that someone's screaming and they're crying out for help, and it's a child in need, how can you do anything but help them?" Rebecca Weinberg said.

The train kept going and it wasn't until several stops later, at the Berwyn station, that the operator was aware of what happened, according to police.

Kelly also said the story being told by the train's motorman does not add up. A witness said she saw the motorman remove a stroller from a train car and later leave it at a stop down the tracks.

The motorman said Wednesday that at the time of the incident, she searched train cars for a person stuck in the doors and she didn't know she was looking for a stroller. She said she saw kids playing with one and simply removed it; in the stress it supposedly slipped her mind.

WBBM Newsradio 780 spoke with the the baby's mother on Wednesday. Ebere Ozonwu told Newsradio 780 that her daughter is OK, "Rachel is fine," she said in a conversation on her cell phone.

But Ozonwu herself said she was in the hospital, "I'm confused right now," she said. "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.

The CTA said it is still investigating the incident and has been talking to another witness.

A CTA spokeswoman said tests are still being conducted, and she says the train is still out of service - and so is the train operator.

The CTA has said its tests showed the doors to be working properly. But Kelly said the union has questions about those tests.

WBBM Newsradio 780's Steve Miller contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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