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NTSB Blames San Francisco Muni Crash on Operator’s Medical Emergency

The National Transportation Safety Board has completed its investigation into the 2009 San Francisco Muni accident involving a light-rail train that left dozens of passengers injured.  According to the investigation, the operator of the train had blacked out, and just before this, he had switched off the electronic controls that would have stopped the train automatically.  The National Transportation Safety Board report also blames Muni for not enforcing a rule that requires operators not to switch off the controls before the train reaches the platform.

On the day of the crash, the operator of the train, Henry Gray suffered a medical condition, and passed out.  The train smashed into the rear of another train, parked at the station’s boarding platform.  48 people were injured in the accident.  27 of these passengers sustained serious injuries as a result of the accident.  These injuries included broken necks, fractures, and nerve and musculature damages.

At the time of the accident, the train should have been under automatic control.  In a state of automatic control, the speed and velocity of the train would have been determined by the central command.  However, the operator had switched off automatic control, and the train was now in manual mode.  This meant that the operator was now in control of the train.

Soon after, he suffered an emergency condition, and blacked out.  Doctors later determined that a heart condition was to blame for his blackout.  Officials at the scene first had indications that the driver had not tried to stop the train, because the accelerator pedal had been pushed all the way forward.  They also found that the emergency shutoff button had not been activated.

The operator told investigators later that switching off the automatic system and moving into manual mode is something that most Muni operators regularly do.  Typically, drivers can only switch off the automatic system after getting permission from central command.  However, employees at Muni central command also informed investigators that it is very common for drivers to not bother to get permission from the central command.

Interestingly, the same driver had been involved in another similar accident at that very same station.  The accident occurred in 2007, and in that accident too, the driver had switched off the automatic control.  After that accident, he was given a five-day suspension.

As San Francisco train accident injury lawyers would have expected, Muni reacted late to the information that the train had not been in automatic mode at the time of the crash.  Two days after the accident, it issued a warning to drivers, warning them that failure to get permission before disengaging the automatic system would result in being fired from their jobs.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of San Francisco Muni accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

 

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