Several People Suffer Minor Injuries In BART Collision
From KTVU
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Preliminary reports indicate that four or five people suffered minor injuries when two Bay Area Rapid Transit trains collided at the 12th Street station in Oakland Tuesday afternoon, a BART spokesman said.
Injured commuters were being taken on stretchers up escalators and elevators to ambulances waiting on Broadway, and BART officials said one wheelchair-bound passenger may have remained on a train at about 4 p.m.
Trains heading from Fremont to Richmond were delayed by between 10 and 15 minutes, and passengers on other lines could experience slight delays as well, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said.
The accident happened at about 3 p.m. and involved one train headed to Richmond and another headed to Pittsburg/Bay Point, Johnson said. One of the trains went off the rail, he said.
Passengers managed to exit the trains and used a catwalk to return to the platform.
Johnson said both of the trains were entering the 12th Street station when the collision happened, one coming from Lake Merritt and the other from West Oakland.
He said the trains were moving slowly and that the impact probably felt like a "bump" to passengers.
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I experienced the aftermath.
I experienced the aftermath. The trip from Lake Merritt to 12th St. at 7:30 PM involved taking a trip beyond West Oakland, switching track and coming back into 12th St. on the opposite platform. At Lake Merritt you could hear loud machinary noise coming from the tunnel...presumably it was the effort to put the trains back on track.
I was on a SF bound train at
I was on a SF bound train at Lake Merritt when it happened. We had to wait 10 minutes for other trains to get out of our way in the "Y" before we could go.
On my way back from SF I saw the workers still repairing the track at 12th ST. Pizza and donuts were brought down for them. Someone should tell them food and drink isn't allowed on the platform :-)
my favorite part of this
my favorite part of this situation was when they made an announcement at the montgomery station that said "attention passengers. trains will be delayed briefly due to an obstruction on the tracks near 12th street station." then i am checking news on my blackberry and i discover that the "obstruction" is actually two trains that collided.
i suppose it is technically correct that two derailed trains are an "obstruction," but i typically view an obstruction as being a tree branch, a passed out hobo, or something of that nature.
Yeah, I was curious what they
Yeah, I was curious what they would say too. I was thinking they might have come up with "there is an equipment malfunction before 12th street".
ah, but the equipment didn't
ah, but the equipment didn't actually malfunction..
Obstruction is ok, or medical emergency, or people in the trackway.. Disabled train, would have been truthful.
Ha, yes I like that.
Ha, yes I like that. "Disabled train."
But *maybe* the equipment did malfunction (the train in ATC ran the block) rather than the train in manual, though I would think that's very unlikely.
Over the past 5 days (or so)
Over the past 5 days (or so) the Pittsburg train has been following and arriving on the same platform as the Richmond train at the downtown Oakland stations (one TO last week stated there was troubles with a switch). Based upon what I have observed, I would guess that the Richmond train was suppose to pull into 12th. first.
I'm sure John Burris has
I'm sure John Burris has already been in contact with the injured people.
That doesn't surprise me.
That doesn't surprise me. Burris has already filed a second lawsuit on behalf of others that were detained the night of Grant's shooting.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11630509
isn't it illegal for a lawyer
isn't it illegal for a lawyer to solicit.
Considering all those ads on
Considering all those ads on TV "If you've been injured" etc., I would say no. After that chemical release in Richmond oh so many years ago, which resulted in a handful of lawyers getting millions and millions and their clients getting about $2,000 each, the California Bar did some serious re-writing of the ethics rules and what lawyers could take as fees in contingency cases. However, when a friend got a DUI recently, he received about 20 solicitations from lawyers to defend him. I imagine it's not that much different if a person is already claiming injury.
With the ads, you call
With the ads, you call them.
But if a lawyer were to walk up to a car accident and offer to sue the other driver for you, that is called solicitation and is not legal.
there is also gray area the Bar frowns on, this is where the lawyer hires someone pass out cards and the person just happens to be near a accident & own a police scanner.
Is BART laying off all the
Is BART laying off all the maintenance people or what? We had a broken down train in front of us AGAIN last night and it took forever to get through Oakland and get home. We are just stuck sitting there. Seems we cannot get home without incident any more, what's up with that? Between all the track problems, obstruction problems, equipment problems, minor collisions and police activity, I'm wondering if it is possible to just have a normal commute to and from work any more and if there is even ONE entire BART train in BART's fleet that functions at 100%. Why is BART building new stations when these sardine can cars are falling apart and won't even make it until the stations are completed?
Also, BART, you've got to be fucking kidding with these four and five car trains at 11:30 p.m. and midnight on a Friday night. You complain that ridership is down, well no wonder, when you make is SO UNCOMFORTABLE. People can hardly board it is so crowded. BART SUCKS the BIG ONE LATELY.
Fire all these assholes in Management like Dorothy Dugger and Linton Johnson and leave the track and maintenance people alone to fix these dam pathetic trains and track problems.
Yes, Bart is cutting back
Yes, Bart is cutting back their Maintenance staff so radically that they can not do the job needed to keep things running.
BART is trying to shift everything over to contractors because it is easier for them. It is also more expensive and often substandard work gets done.
Managements ultimate goal is to come to work, have coffee or breakfast, read the paper, perhaps have sex with some of the newer employees that are on probabtion and then break for lunch. This would be followed by a nap and an afternoon break and then wrap it up and head on home in their BART leased vehicle.
If anything goes wrong they want to be able to pick up a phone and call a contractor to take care of it. Then when it doesn't get taken care of properly, Management can blame it on the Contractor who can then charge more for cost over runs and such.
It's all part of in competance. In order to get a Managers job at BART you have to suck your way into it and actually knowing how to do something is not needed. It's all about playing the game and covering your bosses ass by blaming it all on someone lower than you.
I suggested some time ago
I suggested some time ago that there should be a category for dumbass BART employees. The T/O who failed to stop thus causing the wreck in the Wye certainly qualifies big time. DUMBASS. Operator error. He or she should be fired but the union will protect his/her DUMBASS and this person will continue to endanger the public.
By the way, with all the comments about poor Mehserle, I notice the BART police union has apologized all over the place for what happened. In a newspaper guest column and again in a news report. That should be a hint that what happened at Fruitvale was bad enough to horrify the cops. But not enough to phase the Klan members who frequent this site, apparently.
hahaha Klan members on this
hahaha Klan members on this site. hahahaha
Ooh is to the Wu Tang Klan?
Ooh is to the Wu Tang Klan? Cuz those guys used to be the shit.
Did you know that BART
Did you know that BART Management had order the signal lights removed from the Wye in downtown Oakland where they wreck was so the could save money?
About once a month a technician had to walk into the tunnel and change the light bulbs in the signal that tells the train operator when and where to stop. That was more than BART Mangement could deal with so they had the signals removed.
So now the operator relys on the automatic train control system to stop the train or if in Manual Mode, a call from Central telling them to stop at a certain location.
If you check into it you will find that no one got fired for that accident. No one got fired because it was Managements fault and the operator did what he was told to do.
No one from Management ever has to pay for their screw ups. Ask the two Managers who burnt down Hayward Yard a few months ago.
I don't get it. If ATC was
I don't get it. If ATC was capable of controlling trains through the Wye, why did they need signals there at all? Were the signals run by something smarter than ATC, so that if the signal contradicted ATC the operator was expected to override ATC, stop the train, and wait for the signal?
If the signals were only for trains being operated in manual mode, wasn't there any rule about out signals? Say, that an out signal has to be treated the same as a red unless and until Central says to proceed?
You can not always rely on
You can not always rely on any automatic system. Things happen. Power goes off...whatever. So you have to be able to manually drive the trains if the Automatic Train Control goes out and it does..often! So the operator takes over and follows the lights or verbal instructions.
There is probaly a train control tech or operator who reads BART Rage who can explain it better.