Strollergate 2009: Doubts Raised

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 5, 2009 5:00PM

We've admittedly been hesitant to cover the story of the alleged "Miracle At Morse" in which a stroller with a baby was reportedly stuck in the doors of the train, dragged along the platform, and then the baby knocked out onto the tracks but wound up miraculously unharmed. The whole thing sounded so improbable and given a similar recent incident in Australia that garnered world-wide attention, we had several questions: Did the operator completely not see the stroller before pulling out? How did the train start moving with doors still wedged open? - and we wondered if the whole thing was real. Turns out we're not the only ones. Amalgamated Transit Union President Robert Kelly is having problems wrapping his head around this, too. With the stroller in question in officials' hands and in relatively good condition, questions are beginning to arise. As reported by CBS 2:

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."

Now we're not saying this whole thing is fake. If it really happened as described, we're thankful that the child is okay and not severely harmed. But we agree with our pal Eric Zorn who thinks there are some major details left to uncover.

Update: CTA Tattler has a poll up and as of 1:15 this afternoon, out of 157 votes, 0% of readers believe the mother's story.