Death Behind The Wheel: How The CTA Failed A Driver In Crisis

Samora Hicks’ heart pummeled against her chest as her plane from Baltimore prepared to land at Midway Airport last summer. 

“Is this really happening?” Hicks asked herself repeatedly, unable to stop the tremors in her hands. 

It was the first flight to Chicago Hicks could find on short notice. Hours earlier, she was awakened from her sleep with news she wasn’t prepared for: Her mother, a veteran Chicago Transit Authority employee, was dead.

Time moved slowly — minutes felt like days — but Hicks’ journey back home was necessary for her to find answers. Before she left the plane she’d already decided where she was going: first to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office and then to the CTA’s 103rd Street garage.

Hicks’ mother, Antia Lyons, a 14-year driver for the United States’ third-largest transit agency, had suffered a medical emergency while she sat behind the wheel at the start of her bus route. The 63-year-old was later pronounced dead from complications with her heart.

A Block Club Chicago investigation into the circumstances around Lyons’ death raises questions about the safety of CTA drivers as the agency is touting improved working conditions in an attempt to bolster its staff.

Block Club’s reporting found Lyons sat in her bus unconscious for nearly an hour before someone eventually sought help. CTA supervisors neglected to check on her even though the bus never moved and subsequently failed to arrive at more than 50 scheduled stops.

The CTA failed to report the incident to the Illinois Occupational Safety and Health Administration despite a state law requiring it. The CTA wouldn’t explain why or answer Block Club’s questions about this incident, saying it was limited by privacy concerns. 

“Out of respect for Ms. Lyons’ family, we are unable to provide any more details about her service record,” CTA spokesperson Maddie Kilgannon said in a statement. “We can, however, note that as soon as our 24/7 Operations Control Center was notified of Ms. Lyons’ condition the night of July 20, 2023, first responders were on scene within a couple of minutes.”

But according to an event report from Oak Lawn Emergency Communications, the initial 911 call was made at a nearby BP gas station and not from CTA’s control center. 

More than eight months after Lyons’ death, the CTA wouldn’t even answer general questions about how medical emergencies such as these should be handled, saying the agency “is currently reviewing all aspects of this matter.” 

That Night

On July 20, Lyons reached the end of the 112 bus route when she pulled into the 111th Street and Harding Avenue terminal as scheduled at 9:06 p.m., according to CTA surveillance video obtained by Hicks and shared with Block Club. The CTA wouldn’t say how long she was driving her bus before pulling into the terminal.

According to the video, Lyons left her bus, headed to a restroom in the terminal and returned a minute later, taking her seat behind the wheel. Lyons pressed a few buttons on her dashboard and drove the bus in a loop around the terminal, stopping at the route number sign where riders can board.

Lyons was set to depart the terminal and make the 6-mile trek back to the 95th Street Red Line station. She played with the collar of her shirt before resting her hand on the farebox. Then she gripped the steering wheel again as she stared out of the bus window. 

At 9:13 p.m., seven minutes after entering the bus terminal, Lyons’ body slid slowly against the driver-side window with her hand still holding onto the steering wheel, the video shows. Her foot remained pressed on the brakes, according to the medical examiner’s investigation. 

Lyons was supposed to depart the terminal at 9:14 p.m., according to the CTA’s route schedule. Another bus was scheduled to arrive at the same terminal at 9:28 p.m., followed by one at 9:52 p.m. 

The video provided to Block Club doesn’t include footage of the 9:28 p.m. scheduled stop. Kilgannon wouldn’t answer questions about whether this scheduled stop was made or, if it was, how the driver missed Lyons slumped in her seat. If Lyons had left as she was supposed to, no other bus would’ve been in the terminal. 

But data collected from an outside group does show a bus pulled into the terminal around this scheduled time. 

The Ghost Bus project, a volunteer group of Chicagoans working to improve public transit, has collected publicly available data from CTA’s Bus Tracker since 2022. The data can precisely show where a vehicle is at a certain time. 

According to this data, a bus arrived at the 111th Street terminal behind Lyons about 9:27 p.m. and stayed until at least 9:37 p.m. before continuing its route back to the 95th Street Red Line. The next bus arrived about 9:52 p.m. 

About 9:53 p.m., a CTA bus driver walked around Lyons’ bus and knocked on the windshield, but Lyons was unresponsive. The driver returned to their bus before checking on Lyons again, this time knocking on the door of her bus. 

The driver sprinted in the direction of a nearby gas station, where someone called 911. The driver returned to Lyons’ bus and flagged down arriving emergency vehicles. 

Responders from the Oak Lawn Fire Department entered Lyons’ bus at 10:08 p.m., almost one hour after her body went limp, according to surveillance footage.

Paramedics found Lyons in “full arrest” and slumped over in her seat with her foot pressed on the brakes, according to records from Oak Lawn Emergency Communication and the medical examiner’s office. 

Lyons was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she was pronounced dead at 10:41 p.m. — almost 90 minutes after she lost consciousness.

“My mother sat in her bus for an hour before she was found unconscious and somebody called an ambulance,” Hicks said. “I just can’t wrap my head around why don’t you guys look out for your employees?

“They should be making checks, especially if buses are delayed. A bus driver could’ve got their brains blown out and I feel like they wouldn’t care or know.”

The medical examiner declared cardiovascular disease along with obesity as Lyons’ cause of death.

“The coroner told me she died of stress and obesity, that it was mostly related to her heart stopping,” Hicks said. “She was about to be 64 years old, and she was trying to retire before she turned 65. She couldn’t handle the job anymore.”

A Daughter’s Frustration

Hicks said since the death of her mother she has been caught in a web of misinformation and obfuscation from the CTA that has made it difficult for her to learn basic details about what happened that night.

Why did it take so long for someone to help her mother? What happened to the scheduled buses trailing her — didn’t they see her? And how did the 24-hour control center fail to see her bus stalled for so long? 

Lyons was obviously in need of help, Hicks said.

“My mother did not know that was going to happen to her that night, and the fact I was never able to say goodbye to her is the hardest pill I will have to swallow,” Hicks said.

When Hicks asked a bus operations manager at the 103rd Street garage to show her the surveillance footage of what happened, she was flatly told no. That was the start of a pattern: The CTA repeatedly refused to provide her with records or information revealing what exactly happened to her mother. Hicks had to hire a lawyer to get a copy of the video. 

Eventually, the agency sent Hicks a check to cover some of the funeral expenses.

Kilgannon said the CTA covered “more than 90 percent of the funeral costs.”

The CTA also sent a plaque memorializing Lyons’ career at the agency, but with a glaring problem: Her first name was misspelled as “Anita.” 

“CTA had issued a bus stop sign that included a typo, and it was corrected immediately,” Kilgannon said.

“CTA did send some people to the funeral with a new plaque that had the correct spelling, but I didn’t even want to talk to them at that point,” Hicks said. The bus operations manager “also got up at my mother’s funeral and called her ‘Anita.’ Everybody at the funeral service corrected her at the same time.” 

The CTA also left information of the incident out of public records. For example, the agency provided Block Club with data showing CTA employees who were injured or died on duty over the past six years — but Lyons’ death was not included. 

Kilgannon said the data didn’t include Lyons’ death because it didn’t meet the federal definition of “Major Incidents.” 

The agency didn’t answer questions about whether it collected data on employee fatalities or injuries that happened due to medical emergencies on the job.

Lyons was also left out of records the CTA provided showing employees with a pension plan who have died in the past five years. 

A representative from the CTA’s pension office said that was the result of a “clerical error.” 

The CTA must also report “fatalities caused by a heart attack at work” to Illinois OSHA within eight hours of the person’s death. 

A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Labor said this incident was never reported. 

“Generally speaking, it’s up to the employer to report work-related injuries that meet reporting criteria to IL OSHA,” said Paul Cicchini, spokesman for the state’s labor department. 

Cicchini said employers can be cited by the state’s OSHA division for failing to report incidents. 

“CTA staff reviewed the bus video, which indicated that Ms. Lyons was neither the victim of criminal conduct nor did her condition appear to be work-related,” Kilgannon said. “Documents in possession of the CTA do not state that her cause of death was a heart attack.

“CTA stands by its handling of this matter.”

But the agency handled a similar incident in 2019 much differently.

When a 52-year-old driver suffered a heart-related emergency on their bus on the Northwest Side, a CTA supervisor noticed the bus was stalled. After the driver didn’t answer radio calls, the supervisor drove to the bus, found the driver lying unresponsive on the floor and called 911. The driver was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The incident was then reported to Illinois OSHA.

‘The CTA Does Not Care About Their Workers’

About 12 hours after Lyons’ death, Hicks arrived at the 103rd Street garage with a few friends and family to collect her mother’s car and some of her belongings. The garage was bustling, Hicks said, and she was greeted by many of her mother’s coworkers, who expressed their condolences. 

Several coworkers also said they watched the footage of what happened and said there was a second bus whose driver saw Lyons unresponsive but didn’t help. Hicks was told the manager wanted to speak with her. 

Hicks thought the manager would be understanding. Instead, the office was void of empathy. 

“It was so cold and business as usual,” said Sabrina Curry, Lyons’ sister, who was in the room.

Hicks and Curry said the bus operation manager grew angry and frustrated with every question they asked. Ultimately, the manager said the video was CTA property and the agency didn’t have to show them anything.

“That showed me that the CTA does not care about their workers,” Hicks said. “My mother was just another number.”

It wasn’t just the CTA that prevented Hicks from finding some semblance of closure. 

“Her union rep was very apologetic at first and said he was going to get me a copy of the video, but then he stopped answering my calls. He completely ghosted me,” Hicks said. 

Keith Hill, president of Amalgamated Transit Union 241, which represents CTA bus drivers, declined to discuss the case. Hill said requests for comment should go through the union’s attorney. 

The attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Hicks ended up having to hire her own attorney to get a copy of the video footage. Still, she said, the footage was heavily edited to the point where she could see timestamps jump ahead. 

Plans for Jamaica 

Hicks expressed joy when she talked about her mother.  

Lyons, a suburban Hazel Crest resident, was known for her affinity for dancing and specifically loved steppin’, but she was also very handy.

“People would call her to ask to help them change their oil in their car and she would do it,” Hicks said. “My mother was also funny. She was caring. She was very smart and talented. She was different in every way.”

Lyons loved to spend time in her “she shack,” which was a designated area in her home where she would sit on her couch, enjoy a glass of wine and unwind from the outside world. She had a green thumb and a garden in her backyard that she tended. 

“She was always so happy when her garden started sprouting,” Hicks said. 

But there was one thing Lyons was looking forward to the most once she retired. 

“She was planning to sell her house, and she wanted to move to Jamaica,” Hicks said. “She wanted to live the rest of her life out there.”