Operator Error Likely to Blame in Crash

  KCBS Team Coverage: Muni Crash Aftermath

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Ted Turpin said Sunday that the operator switched to manual in a tunnel near West Portal Station, but did not yet know why. The operator, who has not been named, was injured in the collision on Saturday.

Turpin says the crash which injured 48 people, four seriously, occurred 24 seconds after the operator made the switch.

Turpin says the full investigation is expected to take 9 months to a year. 

NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson says investigators from Los Angeles will work with transit officials, interviewing the train drivers, passengers and witnesses.

Knudson says the NTSB investigation will also focus on the condition of the train tracks, signal systems and the condition of the train cars involved.

Details of the Crash

The accident occurred just before 3 p.m. when a fully loaded westbound L Taraval train slammed into the back of a packed K train that was stopped in the station. The impact tossed several passengers on both trains to the floor of the vehicles.

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

Firefighters began arriving within minutes and immediately set up a mobile triage center.  Some of the injured were treated on the train and carried off in stretchers. A Muni bus was also brought in to transport the walking wounded. All were taken to local medical facilities, including San Francisco General Hospital, and were said to be in stable condition.

"Everybody is trained in this. We separated them by the severity of the injury, they were triaged, tagged and transported," said Deputy Fire Chief Pat Gardner.
  KCBS’ Mark Seelig Reports on Rescue Crews’ Response

The multi-casualty unit was called to the scene, as were two of the four captains on duty at the time to help with direction.

"It worked as smoothly as it could, and I'm very proud of the way they acted," said Gardner.

Gardner says an operation as big as Saturday's can quickly go south if crews aren't properly trained.


Transit Expert: 'It Was Probably Avoidable' 

One Bay Area transportation official is saying that the crash was likely avoidable.

Rod Diridon heads the Minetta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, and says the U.S. is long overdue in installing the costly electronics system called "Positive Train Control" or PTC.
  KCBS’ Tim Ryan Reports on a System That May Have Prevented the Crash

"The PTC has the effect of stopping a car automatically when the car goes through a red signal," said Diridon.

President Bush last year signed a bill calling for PTC installation, but the process will be done over a period of years.

"In carrying billions and billions of riders since 1964, the Japanese high speed rail system has never had one person killed," said Diridon. "It's the same with the French systems which have been operating since 1980."

PTC legislation was the result of a deadly Metro Link crash in L.A. last year.

A rail safety organization claims that over a 12-year period in the U.S. there were several thousand preventable rail crashes.

No word yet on what caused the crash, although eyewitnesses gave conflicting reports regarding the driver of the K 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. Muni spokesman Judson True said the driver is among the most seriously injured.

The West Portal Station was closed for six hours. Service resumed about 8 p.m.

(MGO)