Woman in 1977 CTA crash still wants to thank Chicago cops who pulled her to safety

It's been more than 40 years since a CTA train tumbled off the elevated tracks in downtown Chicago, killing eleven passengers and injuring nearly 200.

It remains the worst crash in CTA history.

Now, all these years later, a woman who survived that crash says she's hoping to find the Chicago police officers who pulled her to safety.

"Every February I think of them. And it's time to say thanks in person,” said Cam Nowik.

We took a walk with Cam Nowik on Monday to the corner of Wabash and Lake, where 41 years ago she nearly lost her life.

"I landed directly underneath the rails,” she said. "It was like a war zone."

It was February 4, 1977. In the middle of a busy afternoon rush hour, a Green Line train sideswiped another train, causing two cars to fall to the pavement more than 20 feet below.

Nowik was a recently married college student heading home on the El.

"And then all of a sudden there was a halt, a jolt, the gnawing of metal on metal,” she said. "The lights went out, the doors opened, and I tried to reach for a pole by the door and I did not get the pole. I started tumbling and I said 'Dear God, don't let me die!'"

Nowik fell out of the car and landed on Wabash, blacking out. When she came to the car she was riding in was dangling over her head.

"The police came, these four gentle giants just came up to me and lifted me and said 'Ma'm we have to get you out of the way because the train's about to fall,'" she said.

A photograph shows the moment police moved Nowik out of harm's way. She carries it with her every day, and she says she'd like the public's help tracking down the officers in the picture.

"I'd like to know where the officers are. I know they would say it's part of our job, although at any second that El could have come down on all of us as they reached and just dragged me to safety,” she said.

No doubt they're all retired by now. But if anyone recognizes any of these faces, Nowik wants to pass along a simple message that's never too late: "There are no words except thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” she said.

Federal investigators blamed the crash on the train's engineer, saying he failed to notice a warning light.