[PRCo] Muni wreck

Sat Jul 18 22:08:12 EDT 2009

ul 18, 2009 6:58 pm US/Pacific
44 Hurt As 2 SF Muni Trains Collide
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Reporting
Len Ramirez
E-mail
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) â€•

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Scene at West Portal Station after two trains collided.
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Fourty-four people were injured, several seriously, in a collision  
between two San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail trains  
Saturday afternoon at the city's West Portal Station, officials said.

The station was shut down following the crash, snarling service on  
most Muni Metro train lines.

The collision occured just before 3 p.m. when a fully loaded,  
westbound Metro line-L Taraval train slammed into the back of a  
packed Metro line-KT Ingleside/Third Street train that was stopped  
along the outbound platform at the station.

The impact of the rear-end crash tossed several passengers on both  
trains to the ground, witnesses said.

The front of the L car was totally smashed in, the car itself bent  
and its windshield shattered from the impact.

Firefighters began arriving within minutes and immediately set up a  
mobile triage center to isolate the most severely injured. A total of  
44 people were injured, three of them seriously, said Muni spokesman  
Judson True.

"This is probably one of the largest casualty incidents in recent  
years (in San Francisco)," said Pat Gardner, a deputy chief with the  
San Francisco Fire Department.

Gardner said 20 people suffered moderate injuries. He described  
another 21 people as "the walking wounded." All the injured were said  
to be in stable condition.

Fire and rescue crews treated more than a dozen victims on the trains  
and carried them off in stretchers to nearby ambulances. Many others  
were treated on the platform, some with bloodied and bandadged faces.

A Muni bus was also brought in to transport the walking wounded. The  
injured were taken to San Francisco General Hospital and some other  
local medical facilities.

"The most complicated part was making sure everyone is accounted for,  
and the people with the most serious injuries are taken care of and  
transported in a timely fashion," SFFD Lt. Ken Smith said.

Fire officials indicated about 40 rescue workers were at the scene,  
as well as 15 ambulances and seven fire engines.

There was no immediate word on what caused the crash and officials  
said they did not know the speed of the L-Taraval train at the time  
of the crash.

True said investigators would look at "mechanical and human issues"  
in their probe.

Eyewitnesses said the westbound Taraval train barreled into the  
Ingleside train as it emerged from a tunnel connecting downtown San  
Francisco to the city's western neighborhoods.

But the witnesses also gave conflicting reports regarding the driver  
of the L-Taraval train just before the accident.

One witness described him as waving his arms as if he had no control  
of the vehicle, another said he was slumped over. True said the  
driver was among the most seriously injured.

Shin San, 15, said her sister, Celene, was on the L Taraval when it  
hit the Ingleside train - but was not injured and called her from her  
cell phone.

"She said she was on the L and heard a boom," she said. "She saw  
glass windows shattered and a guy got his ear cut."

Muni light rail service for the L, M and K lines -- which travel  
through the West Portal Station -- was halted due to the collision,  
according to the transit agency.

Buses provided substitute transportation between the West Portal and  
Castro stations, and West Portal Station and western destinations for  
the K/T, L and M lines, True said.