Muni train driver tells investigators he blacked out

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The operator of the Muni train involved in Saturday's rear-end collision at West Portal station told investigators he blacked out shortly before the accident, a source close to the probe told the Chronicle.

... So far, investigators have discovered the L-Taraval outbound train was switched from automatic to manual mode while still inside the tunnel approaching the platform. Muni procedure is to wait until the train enters the station to switch to manual.

In automatic mode, the train has an emergency shut-down that stops the train when it gets too close to another train. In manual mode, the operator controls the brake.

"Our data show that the L-train switched from automatic to manual mode while stopped in the tunnel, then proceeded toward the platform," Turpin said. "Twenty-four seconds later, the L-train struck the K-train."

The operator did not press the "red mushroom"- Muni parlance for the bright red button on the operator's console that activates an emergency brake, Turpin said.

The train was traveling 20 miles to 23 miles per hour, when it should have been slowing down, Turpin said. The normal speed for that area is 10 to 13 mph.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/19/BA1N18RPHG.DTL&tsp=1

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. hmm and if there are no drugs in the system

it may have been a medical inscident

[gorfle]

2. There is no excuse for this sort of accident.

There is simply no excuse for this sort of accident in this day and age.

Train tracks are all well known in location. A GPS transceiver should be installed on every locomotive, and preferably on every caboose or tail-car. A computer system should monitor all of these GPS units, map them out onto the rail system, and be able to detect collisions and shut down trains as needed to avoid collisions.

[Aragorn]

3. then

there must be witnesses who can corroborate the story. I agree, it could have been a medical issue. Safeguards don't have to be as sci-fi or expensive as one poster suggests, either.

[Garbo 2004]

5. Yesterday on the news there was a witness waiting on the platform who said driver's head was down

as the train came in. As if the driver was asleep or passed out.

[AsahinaKimi]

4. on SFgate.com someone commented..

They had heard on the news that the driver may have had gone into a diabetic coma, what ever that means. I haven't heard anything further on it, but maybe more will come to light during the investigation.