Pickup truck derails Danger Train

The Danger Train had a bit of a problem Friday:

Several people are recovering after a light rail accident Friday. A pickup truck slammed into the train on Main at Elgin downtown and sent part of the train right off its tracks.

The accident is one of the worst in light rail's nearly two year history. Like most of the crashes that have plagued METRO's trains, the one shortly after noon on Friday is blamed on a driver.

A scene of mass casualties is what Houston paramedics encountered near where the collision took place.

"It kind of shook everybody to the left and got off the track," said passenger Gala Abdul-Aleem.

"We were scared because the train jumped," added passenger Rodolpho Castro.

The impact jarred the several dozen passengers on board.

"We thought the train was going down because it jumped a lot," said Castro.

The train stayed upright, but derailed slightly. As METRO engineers solved that problem, paramedics rushed seven passengers and the pickup truck driver to area hospitals.

Of course, it's the truck driver's fault...and he'll probably be ticketed...and his insurance will be billed...because a train was running down the middle of Main Street.

On a semi-related note, here's a knowledgable Houstonian's experience trying to navigate downtown without getting smooshed by our world-class train.

UPDATE: Rad Sallee's story this morning says that (so far) no ticket has been issued to the truck driver due to differing stories of who had a green light. There have been instances in the past where train operators have blown through intersections when they didn't have the vertical bar (green light).

BUT this KHOU-11 story says the onboard train video shows that the train did have a vertical bar.

And Tom Bazan emails that this is accident number 126. Does any other city even come close to our accident rate?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/23/05 11:37 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (8)

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