CTA worker dies of Legionnaires' disease

Authorities say a Chicago Transit Authority employee who contracted Legionnaires' disease while working at a vehicle-washing facility has died.

The DuPage County Coroner's office says 37-year-old Robert Pierce of Plainfield, a C-T-A electrician who worked most recently at CTA facilities at Midway Airport and at another Southwest Side location, died Sunday at a hospital in Naperville.

The coroner's office says no autopsy will be performed on Pierce, who died of pneumonia that he developed as a complication to Legionnaires' disease.

There are 800 employees at the two CTA facilities, and all were sent notifications about the electrician's illness and about how the waterborne disease is transmitted.