MUNI Archives - Dolan Law Firm

BART Lawsuit Thrown Out By Appeals Court

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

March 13, 2014

A lawsuit filed against the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District was recently rejected on appeal by an Alameda County Appeals Court.

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.

A trial court found that Ti failed to present sufficient evidence that the train operator was negligent or that the condition of the train doors constituted a “dangerous condition of public property that presented a substantial risk of injury to BART passengers.”

BART was able to show that the closing pressure of BART train doors was consistent with national standards and other transit agencies around the country. BART trains have a closing pressure of 15 pounds to a maximum of 30 pounds, and the BART train door incident rate is about one in 4.67 million.

Ti also claimed that unlike on other trains, the operator did not look out of the train to see whether passengers were attempting to enter the train late. Ti claimed that she looked around for the train operator upon getting stuck in the doors, but this contradicted her prior testimony that she was unable to see the front of the train when she was caught in the door.

Ti’s argument may have supported a lawsuit based on premises liability, but the appeals court found that it was insufficient to support a lawsuit based on vicarious liability for the train conductor’s conduct.

The Dolan Law Firm handles personal injury cases in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area. If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident, call us at 888-452-4752.

Case: Ti v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, 2014 WL 844886, March 05, 2014

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California Public Transportation Accidents on the Rise

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

Bus Accidents

January 1, 2014

Article provided by The Dolan Law Firm

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.”

Common Carriers Owe a Higher Duty of Care

In general, common carriers refer to those who are in the business of transporting property or people for the general public. Types of common carriers include:

City buses
Airlines
Taxis
Elevators, escalators and moving walkways
Ski lifts

Privately-owned transportation companies are also considered common carriers if they transport persons for hire. This includes private charter buses and tour bus services.

Civ. Code § 2103 states:

A Carrier of persons for reward must give passengers all such accommodations as are usual and reasonable, and must treat them with civility and give them a reasonable degree of attention.

Likewise, under Civ. Code § 2103, equipment must also be safe and fit for its intended purpose.

Under California law, common carriers are held to a higher standard of care than other transportation services or even other drivers. Civil Code §2100 states that common carriers “must use the utmost care and diligence for [passengers’] safe carriage, must provide everything necessary for that purpose, and must exercise to that end a reasonable degree of skill.”

As part of this heightened standard of care, common carriers owe many duties to their passengers, including:

The duty to safely transport passengers to their destinations
The duty to provide a safe place for passengers to enter and exit the vehicle
The duty to take reasonable steps to protect passengers from harm, including harm by other passengers
The duty to provide safe vehicles and maintain the safety of those vehicles
The duty to hire qualified employees and properly train those employees

The duties common carriers owe to their passengers may begin before the passenger ever steps foot on the bus, plane or other mode of transportation. So long as the common carrier has accepted a person as a passenger and the passenger has placed himself or herself in the carrier’s care, then the common carrier has a duty to take every reasonable step to ensure the safety of the passenger. Furthermore, the carrier’s duties do not automatically end once a passenger leaves the vehicle. The common carrier must take the passenger to his or her intended destination and leave the passenger in a safe place.

When a common carrier fails to uphold its duties to its passengers are injured as a result, the common carrier can be held legally liable for these injuries.

Common Carrier Accidents

Despite these higher standards, there are still an alarming number of accidents involving common carriers not just in California, but across the country. Why do these accidents occur?

Common carrier accidents may happen for many different reasons, including:

Poor driver training
Inadequate discipline of reckless drivers
Driver fatigue
Improperly maintained and decaying equipment
Improperly maintained infrastructure

Most common carrier accidents relate to driver negligence, operator negligence or poor equipment maintenance.

Common carriers are responsible for the actions of their employees. Under the law, employees are agents of the common carrier and the business may be held liable for the negligence of its agents. Common carriers are required to properly train their employees and supervise their work. This includes properly disciplining or terminating drivers and operators who do not perform their work responsibly.

Common carriers also have a duty to maintain the safety of their equipment and vehicles. This means regularly inspecting the vehicles, performing routine maintenance and making necessary repairs. The equipment also must be up to current safety standards. Common carriers are liable when a known defect or a defect they should have known about results in injury to passengers.

Conclusion

Those who own and operate public transportation services are held to the highest level of care under California law. When these common carriers fail to uphold their legal duties and a passenger is hurt as a result, the injured person is entitled to compensation for those injuries. For more information on common carrier liability and public transportation accidents, contact an experienced attorney.

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Three injured when big rig crashes into MUNI train

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

Fire & Burn Injuries

April 26, 2013

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.

This is the most recent of many California truck accidents this spring which have been attributed to driver negligence. Last month a Petaluma couple was killed after a trucker lost control of his big rig on I-80 in Davis.

The trucker said that he was eating french fries while driving when he started choking and passed out. When the driver awoke, an elderly couple was trapped in a burning car.

FOX40 recently interviewed the truck driver from the hospital where he’s recovering from burns.

“I’m so sorry for what happened,” the trucker said. “If there’s one thing you could do, let the family know how sorry I am. I don’t know why this happened, but there was nothing I could do.”

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, “Muni service resumes after SF crash,” Neal J. Riley, April 26, 2013

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Man dies after being pinned under Muni bus in pedestrian accident

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

MUNI

November 16, 2011

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.

Although the facts surrounding the accident remain under investigation, early news reports indicate that the man stepped in front of the bus around the time the vehicle pulled out of the bus zone. The man was struck by the 14-L bus, which rolled over the pedestrian’s legs.

A man was across the street at the Hub when the accident occurred. He says he noticed some sort of commotion going on and ran out to see what had happened. The man says he saw the victim’s legs sticking out from under the bus just after the accident. The witness told the San Francisco Chronicle that he does not believe the driver realized the bus had hit the pedestrian at first.

One woman called 911 and two witnesses, including the man who was investigating the commotion reportedly climbed under the bus before emergency responders arrived. The Good Samaritans found the victim’s right leg pinned under the bus. The witness who spoke with the newspaper says he just held the victim’s hand after the accident and kept telling the victim to breathe.

Sources indicate that the man was apparently on his way to work at the time of the accident. He was wearing his security guard uniform; his lunch bag was found on the ground at the scene of the accident.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, “Man struck by Muni bus dies,” Casey Newton, Nov. 14, 2011

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Muni bus runs over bicyclists arm, keeps driving

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

MUNI

September 22, 2011

A Muni bus ran over the arm of a San Francisco bicyclist last Wednesday, and continued to drive down its route. The Muni accident is one of a number in the last few months involving pedestrians or bicyclists.

According to reports, Laila Brenner was riding her bike home from work when she changed lanes to avoid a double-parked car and was hit by a muni bus near the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Broadway. As Brenner fell to the ground the rear tire of the bus rolled over her arm.

Muni maintains that it is unclear whether Brenner crashed due to the negligence of the bus, or because of the illegally parked vehicle. They further stated that the bus suspension was designed in such a way that driver would not have been aware that the back wheel had run anything over.

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New San Francisco resident struck down in Muni bus accident

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

MUNI

August 23, 2011

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.

The Muni bus reportedly made a left-hand turn and struck the woman crossing the street. She had made it 95 percent of the way when the fatal San Francisco pedestrian accident occurred. Police say the woman was in the crosswalk when she was struck. The accident remains under investigation and many questions are coming up. The Muni shuttle involved in the accident was traveling on Hartford, a street not normally used for Muni shuttle service.

The Muni shuttle bus was on the streets adding supplemental service for the F-Market Line. The F-Market line does not operate on Hartford. The Muni reportedly says shuttle buses normally only operate on streets with assigned service, according to Muni policy. It remains unclear why the shuttle was on Hartford at the time of the fatal accident. The San Francisco Examiner says the woman’s father asks “Why did a bus driver have to come up a street he shouldn’t drive up?”

The shuttle operator reportedly has been placed on non-driving status as the fatal Muni bus accident investigation continues. The bus driver reportedly has been with the Muni for seven months.

The family is still trying to come to grips with the tragedy, but has many questions. The San Francisco Examiner reports that the woman’s mother at least has been able to take a small bit of solace from the cheery, but brief, phone conversation she shared with her daughter just before the fatal accident.

Source: San Francisco Examiner, “Woman killed by Muni bus, Emily Dunn, had just moved to San Francisco,” Will Reisman, Aug. 22, 2011

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MUNI Train Operator Turned Off Automatic Brake System Prior To Crash

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

MUNI

May 18, 2011

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.

New evidence in this case reveals that the driver of the runaway MUNI train had blacked out seconds before the collision. Before the driver lost consciousness, however, he turned off the vehicle’s automatic brake system created to prevent such an accident from occurring. The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that both driver and the MUNI organization as a whole share responsibility for this train accident.

When questioned as to why he turned off the automatic braking controls before entering West Portal station, the driver told investigators that it was a common tactic used by MUNI drivers to ease the train’s approach to the platform. Official MUNI policy states that all drivers must contact the organization’s control center and ask for permission to turn off the automatic brakes, yet several MUNI employees confirmed that this policy was rarely enforced.

After the 2009 accident, MUNI leadership began forming stricter rules around this issue and even threatened to fire operators who failed to follow the official guidelines before turning off a train’s automatic brakes. Findings from the National Transportation Safety Board indicate that if MUNI had adopted this attitude in 2009 that summer’s serious accident may never have occurred.

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Six passengers injured during San Francisco MUNI accident

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

MUNI

March 29, 2011

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.

In the midst of MUNI’s struggle to defend their safety record, a new accident took place last week which sent six passengers to the hospital. The MUNI accident occurred when the public transportation vehicle collided with a big-rig truck while operating along the KT-Ingleside/Third Street line. Investigators have yet to fully determine whether the MUNI operator or the truck driver was at fault.

The crash occurred in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood on Monday morning after the morning rush hour commute. According to a MUNI spokesman, the big rig truck stuck the MUNI vehicle on its right side, damaging the bus and injuring six passengers.

Officers from the San Francisco Fire Department arrived at the scene and transported the six injured victims to a local hospital. Representatives from the Fire Department later stated that the victims, fortunately, suffered only minor injuries and were all expected to live.

MUNI service resumed as normal an hour after the crash, but this latest smear across the public transportation organization’s safety record is not as easily forgotten. Even though initial reports indicate that the big rig driver may have been at fault for the collision, police investigators have not confirmed exactly how the accident occurred. San Francisco citizens will have to wait and see whether this accident was the result of a trucker’s careless driving, a MUNI failure to protect the safety of its passengers, or a combination of the two.

Source: SF Appeal, “Reports: Big Rig ‘T-Boned’ Muni Metro Train.” 21 March 2011

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MUNI Cited for Violating Safety Codes and Endangering Riders

Dolan Law Firm

posted in

MUNI

March 21, 2011

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.

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