Articles Posted in Bus Accidents

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Yesterday we target=”_blank”read about how Muni sent letters to 54 of their operators without licenses, asking them to resolve the situation within two weeks or face termination. Only about a quarter of them came back with a valid driver’s license and returned to duty and 40 did not, despite the threat of termination. As of yet, none have yet been fired. Their contract specifically says having a Class B commercial driver’s license from the Department of Motor Vehicles is a requirement for the job, and if that requirement is not fulfilled, then they can be terminated. 30 drivers have had their licenses suspended because of medical reasons. For their license to be valid, they must pass a check-up once every two years at San Francisco General Hospital. If a potential dangerous health issues shows up, such as high blood sugar and an irregular heartbeat, then the license is immediately suspended until the operator can receive a follow up evaluation and clearance.

Since the suspensions took effect, and been brought to light, the agency has been blocked from hiring more drivers to fill positions. But starting this month, the agency wants to ramp up their efforts to resolve the problems of drivers who cannot drive and find ways to remove those whose problems are irresolvable. A total of 29 have gone on leave sometime in 2010, and 20 went on leave in 2009. Operators who cannot drive pose a very expensive problem for the agency and taxpayers, because they are occupying a position, and yet, even though most operators who are not working are not receiving pay, they still are receiving benefits. Taxpayers may have to pick up the bill if muni is unable to fill the open positions and forced to shuttle passengers. This problem affects all of us, not just the SFMTA.

This whole thing brings up an important point-unhealthy drivers actually operating Muni. So what if an unhealthy Muni driver, one who may have been cleared medically, has an accident due to an illness and causes injuries to San Francisco citizens? It could potentially cost taxpayers and the city unpredictable amounts in medical bills and/or settlements. Remember that light rail crash in 2009 when the driver seemed to have fallen asleep or passed out, crashed and injured 48 people? We don’t need to see that happen again. And don’t forget about all the lawsuits. At the beginning of this year the SFMTA approved settlements for lawsuits filed against the city stemming from an array of mistakes and misdeeds by the city’s bus, light rail and cable car drivers, as reported by ABC News. They totaled a bit under $2.5 million. The following is a breakdown payouts for those accidents for which Muni was involved:
• A woman from Texas was seriously injured when the cable car she was on jumped the tracks. She was knocked unconscious and broke a leg and several bones. She received more than $2 million.
• Another passenger from Texas and her son will receive $50,000 and Fremont man is going to receive $75,000.
• $52,000 went to a woman in a wheelchair whose foot was crushed by a Muni Bus wheel chair lift.
• $5, 214 went to a muni passenger who lamed into the bus’ windshield after the driver suddenly stopped short.

Muni not only needs to become fiscally efficient–it needs to become safer. And not only do drivers need to be properly trained in terms of safety, they need to be well enough physically to perform their jobs. Good luck to the SFMTA on sorting out this difficult problem.
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Muni is in the spotlight again, this time over a safety issues-one of which has to do with negligent Muni personnel and the other with Muni’s fleet of low-floor buses. The California Public Utilities commission, the regulatory agency that oversees rail and light-rail transit agencies in the state, noted dozens safety violations in their inspection reports released last week. Many of the violations involved worn tracks, exposed wires, malfunctioning emergency phones and overgrown vegetation along the tracks. There were only a handful of violations which involved human error, such as a train operator who appeared to be sleeping while the train was moving. During another inspection a train operator was seen with a number of newspapers near him, indicating that the operator was, at some point, distracted by the paper during his shift, even though the inspector did not observe the operator reading the papers at the time of the inspection.

Muni is also facing criticism regarding their fleet of environmentally friendly, cheap to maintain, low-floor, hybrid buses. Most Muni riders consider the fleet a success, as they speed up service by allowing passengers to board quickly; however, the disabled and senior community are concerned about low-floor buses due to the fact that they are actually higher off the ground than other buses and don’t “kneel,” which means they are harder to board. Transit activist and former Muni engineer Jerry Cauthen said low-floor buses are crucial in speeding up service in heavily used corridors. Muni Officials estimate that their agency could save $76 million just by ordering more of these buses, which would raise system-wide speeds by 1mph.

Here at the Brod Law Firm, we believe, despite Muni’s need for budget cuts and more efficient service, they should never take their eyes what is most important: safety. If you or a loved one suffered an injury due to Muni’s negligence, please contact our firm. We have over 10 years experience helping people who have been injured in accidents involving Muni.

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Muni has received the approval rating in almost a decade, according to the SF Examiner. Thousands of riders take Muni each day, and during the past year, they have been paying more and more while the agency has tried to fix its deficit. The price for a monthly pass has increased twice, from 45 to 70, while service has been slashed on many lines. Generally, passengers feel $70 dollars is too much money to pay for waiting for a bus for 45 minutes or ride buses that are overcrowded and/or unsafe. Consider, for example, the two incidents that happened on the N-Judah recently. On November 30th two suspects shoved a gun into the stomach of a Muni passenger and demanded money, punched him several times and stole his laptop. Then two days later on December 2nd, another passenger was terrorized by armed suspects while riding the N-Judah, whereby one of the suspects sat down next to the passenger and pulled out a knife and demanded his possessions. Some say that miserable service overshadows any breakthroughs the SFMTA accomplishes. Let’s hope the Muni rider with financial knowledge, investment experience-and, most likely, rider frustration-that Gavin Newsom has nominated will be able to serve Muni riders.
The folwoing are some common sense, safety tips you can take into account when you ride the bus. Think about sitting near the middle, near the door in case you need to exit ASAP. Also, don’t show off your new iPhone or iPod, or a new and expensive anything. Try substituting black earphones rather than wear the white iPod earphones, a signal to others you have one. Don’t cling to tight to your things, which gives you a fearful look and inevitably draws attention to you. Try to act casual, but stay vigilant and don’t look like an easy target. Avoid suspicious looking and crazy people. If you don’t feel safe, just get off and wait for the next bus or, if you are not too far from your destination, walk the rest of the way. And don’t forget that some drivers are not on your side, as they may ignore your being assaulted or even cause you to be injured by way of their own negligence. If you or a loved one was injured due to an incident or accident on a bus, please contact our firm today.

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According to streetsblog.com, surveillance video from a Tenderloin market shows a 65-year-old woman, who clearly had the right of way, in the crosswalk on Geary Boulevard and Leavenworth Street Wednesday afternoon when the driver of a UCSF shuttle bus loaded with passengers made a left turn onto Geary and struck and killed her. Suman Dhakal, who works at Star Market on the southeast corner, played the video for streetsblog before turning it over to SFPD investigators. It looks like it’s the driver’s fault from the shop video, because the light was a green and the woman was right in front of the bus. Dhakal said he thought that the driver was not paying attention, but, from looking at the video, it looks like he should have seen the lady.

What is particularly grim about this accident is the driver hit her once and then, perhaps out of fear, panic, and confusion, backed up and hit her again. Elizabeth Stampe, the executive director of Walk SF, said that the intersection of Geary and Leavenworth has been a troublesome spot for years. Dhakal said that he sees minor crashes and near misses on a daily basis. Most intersections like this one, intersections where a pedestrian walks alongside fast-moving, one-way traffic, are very dangerous indeed. Most drivers forget to slow down when they begin to turn, and slow down only when they see a pedestrian a few inches in front of them, which often leaves little time to safely stop. Like that shop owner at Geary and Leavenworth, you’re likely to see near misses at all these types of intersections. What is needed at intersections like this one is better street design, design that makes pedestrians a top priority and drivers aware.

Whether you have been injured or harmed in a pedestrian accident or whether you are the relative of someone injured as the result of a pedestrian accident caused by a negligent driver, you should seek legal assistance as soon as possible. At the Brod Law Firm we can help you get the compensation that you deserve. It is important to hire an attorney right away after an accident, so that your attorney may take statements from witnesses and have enough time to prepare a solid case. If you are unsure if you have grounds for a claim, please call us for a free consultation.

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https://www.brodfirm.comAccording to the californiabeat.com, three major traffic incidents that involved MUNI vehicles left one man dead, several passengers injured and delayed service for hours in different parts of San Francisco Saturday. The first accident happened in Chinatown after a 8X-Bayshore Express bus collided with a 30-Stockton trolley coach near Stockton and Clay Streets at around 11:00 a.m. The driver of the 8X bus left the coach to inspect a faulty wheelchair lift when the bus suddenly rolled backwards down Stockton St. until it collided into the side of the 30-Stockton bus. The bus rolled into a collection of street-side newspaper racks and a mailbox before it came to a complete stop on a sidewalk. Several passengers aboard both buses were treated for minor abrasions. No one was seriously injured in the accident.

Then at approximately 3:00 p.m., Pacific Gas and Electric crews reported a downed wire that fell onto MUNI’s overhead trolley wires at 25th & Mission Sts. in the Mission District. The failure of the wire caused a large power outage that knocked out electricity to approximately 6,500 customers in the neighborhood. No one was injured in the power line collapse. The third incident happened around 6:00 p.m. when a 47-Van Ness MUNI bus struck a pedestrian as it was pulling into the northbound bus stop outside a Walgreens drug store at Van Ness and Market Sts. The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene. Witnesses claim the man intentionally stepped in front of the bus when it approached the bus stop.

Injuries sustained in city bus accidents are frequently caused by passengers being thrown around in the bus, due to the fact that passengers are not appropriately restrained, and can range from cuts and bruises, whiplash and fractures, to serious head injuries and injuries that result in brain damage, paralysis, loss of limbs and even death. If you or a loved one has been injured as a passenger in a city bus accident, then you have the right to make a claim for personal injury compensation on a no win no fee basis. As a victim, you can obtain personal injury compensation for your injuries and for any costs incurred. If you have questions regarding how California law protects public transport passengers, please call our firm.

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Last night, on July 22, 2010, a Greyhound bus heading from Los Angeles to Sacramento hit an overturned SUV, killing six people, including three passengers in the SUV, and injuring many more. The CHP (California Highway Patrol) has not determined what caused the SUV, a Chevy Trailblazer, to turn over, and it is unclear as to whether or not the headlights were on, which would have affected the Greyhound bus driver’s ability to see it.

There were more than 30 people on the bus, which was not equipped with seatbelts for its passengers. California Vehicle Code Section 23715 requires taxicabs to install seatbelts in their vehicles, which addresses the policy to reduce highway deaths and injuries by encouraging the use of seatbelts. While the cause of this tragedy has yet to be determined, if the Greyhound bus involved had seatbelts available to its passengers, the number of serious injuries, and possibly some fatalities, would almost certainly have been reduced.

If you or a member of your family has been involved in a bus accident or a vehicle rollover, please call the Brod Law Firm, P.C. for a free consultation.

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Apropo our last blog, there is some addition information we would like to share. But before we do that, the following is a quick recap. Last week, according to AOL news, a Greyhound bus carrying 47 people on its way to Sacramento from Los Angeles crashed on a highway in California’s Central Valley on Thursday, killing six and injuring many others. The California Highway Patrol Officer at the scene said the bus driver swerved to try and avoid another crash involving an overturned SUV and slammed into a concrete center divider and then struck another vehicle shortly after 2am. The bus then went down an embankment, hit a eucalyptus tree and came to rest on a freeway off-ramp. 47 people were on board, six people died, and the driver was among the dead. This story brings to light two issues: SUV safety and bus safety.

First, this accident happened because the driver of the bus swerved to avoid an overturned SUV and could have been avoided if the SUV had not rolled over and obstructed the path of traffic, which forces the question–Why are some people are still under the impression that bigger is safer? Even though there is plenty evidence showing that SUV’s have a propensity for rollovers and instability at high speeds due their high center of gravity, plenty of people are still buying/driving them. Second, the accident resulted in serious injuries and 6 deaths, which forces the question–Can buses be made safer so that accidents such as this don’t have such catastrophic results? It turns out that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) is making it a priority to improve motor coach safety. In a meeting held in June 2010 they announced specific ways in which they will go about doing that. They will begin by addressing the root causes of motor coach crashes, such as driver fatigue, inattention, medical conditions and the oversight of unsafe carriers. Then they plan to address the root causes of fatalities and injuries in motor coaches by developing requirements for seatbelts for all seating positions to prevent ejections, strengthening the bus structure surrounding the windows to improve their crashworthiness, conducting verification rollover testing, develop performance requirements for motor coach structural integrity, leasing and testing Electronic Stability Controls to decide if they should be standard, upgrading the performance of tires used on motor coaches, and developing more stringent flammability and fire countermeasures and detection requirements. Here at the Brod Law Firm, we believe that consumers decisions about what form of travel they purchase should be tempered by their own research into the risks involved-which may, or may not, give them a better chance of staying safe than if they had not.

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Here at the Brod Law Firm, we are big fans of Streetfilms.org, the video segment of the Livable Streets Initiative. Streetfilms produce short on-line videos, covering a range of topics from traffic calming in Paris to Sunday Streets in Bogata, also known as Ciclovia (an event after which San Francisco modeled its Sundaystreets). There is also video posted on Streetsblog that capture street confrontations, such as that between a New York City driver with a serious case of road rage and a pedicab simply trying to make his way through the congested city streets. We find all their videos entertaining and educational, giving us insight, while also keeping us in loop, into how our city compares to other cities in terms of the different ways a city can transform its streets into safe and sustainable places, for both vehicles and non-vehicles, as well as livable, vibrant places for social interaction.
The video on traffic calming in Paris we found especially interesting and inspiring. Some examples of their traffic calming strategies are: curbs are removed so that bikes, pedistrians and cars coexist; on the wider roads, bikes share lanes with buses and taxis; some crosswalks are raised, and cobblestone streets and neckdowns are implemented to slow oncomoing or turning traffic. Street calming is a powerful tool for changing behavior and improving safety, as it forces vehicles and cyclists and pedestrians to tolerate each other. And it is not just Paris, other cities, like Copenhagen, Demark, have been implemented extensive traffic calming techniques. Some cities go further to promote non-vehicle transportation, such as Curitiba, Brazil, where, on Rua XV de Novembro (15th of November Street), all vehicle traffic is blocked and only pedestrians are allowed.
Whenever we take on a new case where a cyclist or pedestrian has been injured by a vehicle, we are reminded that these accidents only reinforce San Francisco’s need for street transformation and street calming. In order for San Francisco to maintain a competitive edge in the global economy and its status as a world class city, it must implement, through education and marketing, strategies that place people over cars and reduce the convenience of driving a car. Advertising campaigns that show the burdens of owning a car in the city often outweigh the benefits can be an effective impetus for change. And we need not look to cities overseas for inspiration; cities here in the U.S., like Portland and Cincinnati, have done an excellent job developing and implementing techniques for traffic calming. If they can do it, then San Francisco can do it. These traffic calming techniques would not only benefit pedestrians and cyclists here in our beautiful city, they would also benefit the entire planet by reducing green house gas emissions.

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Recently, friends from Europe stayed with me and my family. During their time here they spent their days touring San Francisco by bicycle. I asked them if they felt San Francisco was as bike friendly city as most European cities. They said that they felt drivers were really aware of bicyclists and looked out for them. But they felt that bus drivers were not very considerate, if not hostile, toward bicyclists. I explained how cyclists have fought hard, with the help of the San Francisco Bike Coalition (SFBC), educating motorists as well as buses on being both cautious and vigilant as they share the road with cyclists. At the same time, I also explained how some bicyclists seem to have less interest in following the vehicle rules of the road and believe that red lights and stop signs are meant only for motorists. My friends agreed with me when I pointed out that there is a victim attitude among some bicyclists who feel –because buses are bigger, and can kill bicyclist, and most streets are not designed for bikes– that they are at a disadvantage on the road and should make their own rules. Bus drivers who encounter bicyclists with the victim attitude usually end up developing the same victim mentality and, as a consequence, ignore the safety of all cyclists. One might think there may never be a middle ground for bus drivers and bicyclists. Every story has at least two sides, though. The bottom line is this: If either bicyclists or bus drivers make their own rules on the road, that can, and usually does, lead to dangerous situations. But buses and bicyclists can coexist as long as bus drivers and motorists act professionally and bicyclists follow the rules of the road. Each year there are more bicyclists on the road, and everyone on the roads would follow the laws of the road, as well as use a little courtesy, our streets will be far less dangerous.
Since cyclists will be increasingly populating the roads and asking for more space in the years to come, we need, now, more than ever, the creation education campaigns that foster safety and respect among cyclists as well as bike network improvement projects that keep our city streets a safe place for all. There is good news. The SFBC has spent years planning and appearing at public hearings in an effort to get the city to implement improvements for cyclists and motorists on the road called the SF Bike Plan. This summer, 3 years after a lawsuit and injunction that barred any improvements and the city’s Bike Plan, the SFBC is celebrating their biggest victory: on June 26th, 2009 the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency voted to adopt their bicycle plan. Once the injunction is lifted, the vote gives a green light for 45 new bike lanes throughout the city. The plan also includes the implementation of on-street bike parking corrals, experimental colored pavement treatments and thousands of new bike racks. Another bit a good news for the SFBC is Mayor Gavin Newsom’s recent announcement that he will implementing a package of trial improvements to market street beginning September 29th, modeled on Projects for Public Spaces –which is in partnership San Francisco Great Streets Project and SFBC. As we collectively move forward during these planned changes, go safely and considerately out there, people!

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May is approaching, and May is National Bike Month-a time for remembering that other people on the road are human beings. Staying aware of this fact can help us get where we’re going with more patience and less stress. This is a philosophy San Franciscans could benefit from as San Francisco strives to become a more bike and pedestrian friendly city. Here at the Brod Law Firm, we have dealt with many bike accident cases, cases usually involving drivers who at fault. Often the reason they are at fault is because they don’t have proper training or awareness driving or parking along city streets full of cyclists. While our community is waking up the fact that we must learn to coexist, we still have a way to go. Not only are bicyclists being injured in unnecessary numbers, but pedestrians are also being injuring at an increasingly alarming rate. For example, just last week, a man was dragged under a bus just after he stepped off of it. Logically speaking, if we became a community which was more bike friendly, it seems that we would also become a pedestrian and transit friendly city by default. If only we could follow the lead of Northern Europe, where children in such places as the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany all receive extensive training in safe and effective cycling techniques as part of their regular school curriculum-most of whom complete such a course before the fifth grade. Motorist training is in those countries is also more extensive as well. Heavy fines and points are placed a driver’s record for driving or parking in bike lanes, cutting off cyclists or otherwise endangering or inconveniencing them.

Thankfully, though, we have the San Francisco Bike Coalition, San Francisco’s de facto bicycling advocacy group. They have been instrumental in making riding conditions better for San Francisco bikers, drawing attention to pedestrian and cyclist safety and promoting the upsurge in bike friendly culture. They strive to show all of us on how to share the road. Their most important message is that motorists need to be aware of cyclists on the roadway and avoid endangering them, and vice versa. Portland, however, is the greatest example of what a bike and pedestrian friendly city in the United States should look like. One of the things they offer their community is a class called the Share The Road Safety Class. The class is a result of a partnership that began in 2006 when Multnomah county Judge, Christopher Larson, reached out to safety groups, such as Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division, the legacy Emanuel Trauma Nurses, Portland’s Bureau of Transportation, and other bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups. All these groups have worked together to develop a training that addresses traffic laws, as well as inattention and intolerance on the road. It also puts special focus on ensuring the safety of cyclists, pedestrians and children. Most who participate in the class are there because they have been charged with a traffic violation. If participants successfully complete the Share the Road course, they are eligible for dismissal or a sentence of discharge, a conviction entered with no fine. Partners of the program hope that individuals will leave the class and share what they have learned with others at work and at home. With programs such as these in place, it is no wonder that Portland has zero cyclist fatalities, even as bicycle use is booming.

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