The lawsuit was brought by Yang Ti and her husband, Pat Diao, against BART arising out of injuries that Ti sustained on a BART train. Ti was injured when the doors of the train closed on her as she attempted to board.
Recently in the news there has been a rash of public transportation accidents that have resulted in severe injuries and even death to passengers. In July, the operator of a MUNI light rail train in San Francisco blacked out at the controls and crashed into another train, injuring 47 people. Earlier this year in February, a BART train in Oakland sideswiped another train. Seven people were harmed in this accident.
When a passenger is hurt while using public transportation, the public transportation provider may be held legally responsible for the passenger’s injuries. Under the law, public transportation providers like city and state-operated trains, buses and light rail systems, are referred to as “common carriers.”
Three people were injured earlier this week when big rig crashed into a MUNI train. Authorities say that the accident happened around 6 p.m. on Sunday when a truck made an illegal turn and hit a light rail car.
The truck was reportedly making a prohibited U-turn on the corner of Burke Avenue and Third Street. Three of the train passengers received minor injuries that did not require hospitalization. Regular train service was interrupted for about three hours after the crash.
Police and firefighters worked feverishly to rescue a pedestrian accident victim who was pinned by a Muni bus in the Mission District Sunday. The man was struck by the bus at the intersection of Fifth and Mission streets in San Francisco around 12:19 p.m. The man was pinned under two tires after the pedestrian accident. Emergency personnel used wooden planks to lift the bus of the accident victim. Authorities say the man pronounced dead after being taken to the hospital.
A 23-year-old woman who had lived in San Francisco for less than a month was struck and killed Friday in the Castro district. The woman had just finished speaking with her mother on the phone about how she loved her new job in San Francisco. She stepped into the street and almost made it all the way across the street when a Muni bus struck her down.
Many San Francisco residents may remember a tragic 2009 MUNI accident in which 46 passengers and two train operators were injured at the city’s West Portal station. The incident occurred in July when an incoming train failed to stop correctly and proceeded to crash into another light rail vehicle already parked at the station.
Last week, our blog highlighted the California Public Utilities Commission report accusing the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency of regularly committing explicit passenger safety violation. The report revealed a variety of issues, including track defects and problems with the subway train control system.
The Public Utilities Commission reported last month that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has repeatedly violated state, federal, and various safety codes, endangering Muni passengers and resulting in unsafe operations. Inspectors conducted over twenty inspections between July 2009 and January 2011, and found track deterioration, malfunctions with automatic train control, poor maintenance, and failure to implement safety procedures. The CPUC also expressed concern over the failure of Muni officials to respond promptly to these concerns.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Muni officials said they felt blindsided by the report but believe that once all the facts are out the agency will be exonerated.” Things don’t look so great for Muni, though, with other reports coming out about drivers that seriously neglect their duties by speeding or even sleeping on the job. With so many violations of safety code, Muni is going to have a lot of work to bring their service up to standard.