Sleepy 'L' rider sees potential dream at end of a long nap

Web-posted: Thursday, January 23, 1997

nybody who has trouble sleeping ought to envy Ronnie Hill, 22. Boy, can this guy sleep.

Here's his strange story.

Hill got up before dawn the other day to get to his classes at Dawson Tech.

He got on a CTA train at 63rd and Ashland at about 6 a.m.

The train was warm, he says, so he dozed off. He was still sleeping at 7 a.m., at 8 a.m., at 9 a.m.

He was sleeping when the train stopped where he should have gotten off. He was sleeping when the train got to the end of the line.

Finally, six hours after he boarded the train, his eyelids flickered open.

"I woke up and there was nobody else on the train. I got up and walked to the door. I was way up in the air.

"I'd been asleep for about six hours, and the train was in the Harlem maintenance shop in Oak Park.

"I had to wave my arms and yell for someone to notice me and give me some help.''

Hill said the car had been raised into the air so technicians could get underneath to do maintenance work.

"This CTA guy, he heard me yelling, and he comes with a ladder for me to get down to the ground.

"He said I should have been woken up by the conductor at the end of the line, that he's supposed to make sure everyone is off the train.

"Then he tells me to go this way and that way to get out of the shop.''

At that point, the normal reaction might have been to slap himself on the forehead, go to the nearest CTA stop and head home for a nap.

But Hill decided that he was some kind of victim. In our society, who isn't?

"I wanted to make a complaint. Why? So that this wouldn't happen to anyone else in Chicago.''

An admirable community spirit. But most Chicago commuters keep their eyes open a little better than does Hill.

"Before I left the Oak Park shop, I went in to talk to a guy. His name is Larry, but he wouldn't give me any information or tokens to get home. I was sent to one of the other offices, and one of them guys there told me that they don't baby-sit grown men. He wouldn't give me any assistance.

"Then I went to this manager's trailer. He wouldn't take my complaint or give me any satisfaction. But he gave me a transit map and two tokens I could use to get home.''

So Hill was ahead of the game of life. He had a fine morning's sleep and now he had his own CTA map and free transportation.

But instead of counting his blessings, he popped into a couple of more offices, trying to register a complaint, again receiving no satisfaction.

"I asked this one man if he could give me a job, and he said yes. Then he told me where to go in the Merchandise Mart and told me how to get there. But he gave me no information.

"Then they gave me a free ride on the train from the shop to the Merchandise Mart. I went to the CTA office and talked to a man. I told him I wanted to make a complaint about falling asleep on a train for six hours and waking up way up in the air at the end of the line.

"He said he was busy and his manager was busy. He told me someone else I could call, but I couldn't use his phone.

"I asked him to call the police and that I was going to the bathroom. Before I could even do that, three security officers were there. They took me to the security office and filled out a report for me.''

Then, Hill got in touch with the media -- lucky me, since I am known to be so sympathetic to society's many helpless victims.

"They all treated me like I was a wino who doesn't have respect for himself. But it could have been anyone who fell asleep. We all have so much on our minds, we come and go and sometimes we don't pay attention.

"They don't have to be like this. No one even asked if I was OK, if I needed help.

"I could have pretended I fell out of the train and sued for big money. But I didn't. I try to do the right thing.''

So what is the right thing that Hill is going to do?

"Yeah, well I am going to sue them.''

Well, who would have guessed?

But if he does find a hungry lawyer, he'll probably be told that he'd have a much stronger case if a CTA worker had kicked him in the groin.

© 1996 Chicago Tribune