After Yellow Line crash, Illinois Senate clears bill requiring transit agencies to make safety recommendations public

A measure passed Friday by the Illinois Senate would require the state and city transportation agencies to make public annual reports about federal safety recommendations — a response to a November CTA train crash and derailment that sent 19 people to hospitals.

Illinois Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, sponsored the legislation that would require reports from the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Regional Transit Authority, the Chicago Transit Authority and Metra that detail rail safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board made in the past 12 months, as well as the status of their implementation by Dec. 31 of each year.

The reports must be made public through an online portal on the transit agency’s website, as well as the Illinois General Assembly’s site.

The Illinois Senate approved the measure unanimously. It must still pass the Illinois House.

“Rail accidents can be prevented if our rail transit systems are regularly implementing federal safety recommendations and keeping those up to date and viewable to the riding public,” Simmons said in a statement after the bill’s passage. “I want rail transit riders to feel safe as they commute.”

In response to the legislation, the CTA in March told the Sun-Times in an email that formal NTSB recommendations and agency responses are already considered public documents and are available on the NTSB’s website. The transit agency did not take a position on the measure but said the “CTA is happy to provide copies of its regular NTSB status reports to any interested entity.”

The NTSB released its preliminary report on the Yellow Line crash in December but did not rule on the cause of the crash.