Comments on: Six Injured When Historic Muni Streetcars Collide with SUV

By: transitjeff

transitjeff — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:19:19 +0000

When did street cars become “trains”? Where’s the locomotive? Does the media in San Francisco really think they are trains? At least in this article, they correctly call the persons operating the cars “operators” and not “drivers”. It’s common knowledge that you “operate” a rail vehicle, not drive it.

By: CBrinkman

CBrinkman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:52:41 +0000

Those old streetcars are sure tough. The car is shmushed, but the 2 street cars look barely dented. No wonder they’ve lasted so long and are still in service. Poor MUNI – having a dedicated right of way would help a lot of issues but this sounds like a distracted Muni driver.

By: transitobserver

transitobserver — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:44:00 +0000

@ night rider, before you assume that modern streetcars would be any safer, check your facts. Tthe braking systems and other safety features of the F-line cars now meet all applicable safety standards, and there’s no evidence at this point that this accident wouldn’t have happened just the same with a “modern” streetcar. (If proof needed, look no farther than the recent Muni LRV accidents.) Whether or not the brakes on the F-line car were working correctly at this particular moment is for the investigators to sort out, but in any event more care has to be given by operators to keeping a safe following distance on the street. That’s just common sense.
@Paul, that’s a poor excuse. That part of the line is mostly locals, and the operators still have an obligation to keep their eyes on the road and concentrate. (Several witnesses say the operator had his head turned around talking to a passenger. If true, another breach of common sense.)

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:19:50 +0000

We shouldn’t be all that surprised. The city encourage these vehicles to be a tourist attraction and tourist ask the operators questions all the time. This type of accident was bound to happen. I always thought it was a matter of time.

By: JMC

JMC — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:12:38 +0000

Cash for Clunkers? Muni, you’re DOING IT WRONG!

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:31:33 +0000

another accident, another multi million dollar payout by MUNI…how many days will it be before Mayor Newsom has anything to say about the poor performance of his MTA?

By: ZA

ZA — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:01:07 +0000

ROAD DESIGN FAIL

Regarding left turns and trains…it’s not ideal, but that’s what Castro is for.

By: night rider

night rider — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:48:50 +0000

How about replacing the historic cars with more modern ones with better safety features which will also support our failing economy.

By: Peter Smith

Peter Smith — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:55:50 +0000

i’m too lazy to look it up right now, but I remember commenting on all last year’s muni accidents that Nat Ford should be fired because he refused to hire a safety director for so long, even after the Chronicle (or someone?) called him out on it. did he ever fill that position?

By: bikerider

bikerider — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:31:50 +0000

“If the car hadn’t been there the rear streetcar would simply have rammed into the front streetcar instead.”

Well, except that the front streetcar would not have been stopped in the first place. One of the advantages for making Market St. a transitway is that streetcars don’t get stuck at intersections.

That isn’t to say there is any excuse for Muni’s easily distracted trolley drivers, but anytime you have trolleys running in mixed traffic, this type of incident is going to happen more frequently.

By: Seth

Seth — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:12:17 +0000

Premature to assign blame.

But I wouldn’t mind if Muni could grow more of a culture of service and safety. Taking cars off Market Street – or every SF street – won’t solve this problem.

By: Jeffrey W. Baker

Jeffrey W. Baker — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:18:24 +0000

If the car hadn’t been there the rear streetcar would simply have rammed into the front streetcar instead.

By: bikerider

bikerider — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:14:40 +0000

“The car was in a shared left turn lane, the car had done nothing wrong by entering the turn lane behind the first streetcar.”

Nonetheless, this latest accident emphasizes the importance of removing cars from Market — so they don’t get in the way of the heavy transit (and bike) traffic.

By: Jason Bentley

Jason Bentley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:09:20 +0000

That photo is begging to have FAIL written across it in big white letters.

By: Matthew Roth

Matthew Roth — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:33:13 +0000

@elgreg
Sorry, I changed the photos to our own. Your joke makes a lot more sense with this:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/08/03/BAET193I42.DTL&o=0

By: Jamison Wieser

Jamison Wieser — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:24:19 +0000

The car was in a shared left turn lane, the car had done nothing wrong by entering the turn lane behind the first streetcar.

By: elgreg

elgreg — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:22:10 +0000

I just can’t believe that Radio Shack is still in business.

By: Jeffrey W. Baker

Jeffrey W. Baker — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:19:39 +0000

I think cars are allowed there, because it’s a left turn lane to Noe.h

By: Stinky

Stinky — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:14:47 +0000

Good grief… Guess the driver of the SUV took “BUSES AND TAXIS ONLY” to mean “DRIVE HERE!!!”