InsideTransit

Ok, here’s another one from the “uhm wtf?” file. A bus operator for Greyhound buses crashed into a wooded area –but get this, the bus operator forgot to set the parking brake after she parked the bus at a travel center in North Carolina.

The bus traveled backwards across Highway 61 and somehow wasn’t hit by cars traveling on the highway. The bus came to rest in the wooded area on the other side of the highway.

Fox8 news in Greensboro, NC has the details on the incident. Can you imagine the shock the bus driver must have received? She parks the bus, heads into the travel center, grabs some food, maybe a scratchoff, uses the restroom, comes outside and finds her bus traveling backwards across the highway.

Maybe Greyhound should play the same (very annoying) announcement you hear in the San Francisco airport when you take the airtrain. As it pulls into the station, we hear “we are entering the station, set luggage cart brake to on”.

A train crash between Hannover and Braunschweig in Germany has injured 16 people. The Local has the full details on the crash.

From The Local, “An oncoming regional passenger train at around 11:20 pm rammed into three cars of a freight train, which had derailed just ahead of a bridge in the city of Peine. A passenger alarmed police from the train, which was carrying 65 people. The regional train conductor was severely injured, while 15 passengers sustained minor injuries, police said. The driver of the freight train, which was laden with gravel, walked away unscathed, according to initial reports.”

Isn’t Disney supposed to be a happy place? First there was a horrible crash of the Disney monorail that killed the operator of the monorail. A week later there was a bus crash that injured 12 passengers. And back in December, passengers on the monorail were stuck for hours.

Yesterday an 80-year old bus driver at Disney crashed into two other vehicles. Check out the full story on the Palm Beach Post. Florida Highway Patrol identified the driver as Fredrick Cassens, 80, of Auburndale.

WESH.com reported that 19 people were on the Disney bus. There were said to be no injuries.

From the Palm Beach Post, “The crash was the third such event on the theme park’s property in the past two weeks. The most recent killed a 9-year-old Pinellas County boy, who was run over Thursday after his bicycle drifted into the side of a Disney bus at Fort Wilderness Resort , investigators said.”

The Disney Blog has a look at all of the accidents and the steps Disney might look at in light of the recent incidents.

Earlier this week a runaway train crashed through the bumpers and into a Holiday Inn Hotel in Helsinki, Finland. Helsingin Sanomat has the details on the crash which happened on Monday, January 4. Reports are that no one was seriously hurt in the crash although some Ernst & Young workers who were in inside the hotel were able to get away just before the crash.

The four coaches had escaped from an empty Intercity train that was scheduled to leave for the eastern city of Kajaani at 8.12 a.m. The brakes on the coaches should have automatically engaged.

From the Sanomat news brief, “The scope of the damage to the hotel building is not known yet, but material damage is estimated to amount to millions of euros. On impact, the hotel’s sprinkler system went off and water also flowed into the pedestrian tunnel underneath the railway tracks. A shop in the tunnel was forced to close. The four coaches had escaped from an empty Intercity train that was scheduled to leave for the eastern city of Kajaani at 8.12 a.m.”

Sad news out of Mathura, India today. A train bound for Delhi has crashed and killed 21 people and injured another 17 passengers. Read the full story about the crash on AFP. Local railway manager Rajendra Dutt Tripathi said a train travelling from the southern state of Goa to New Delhi had run into the back of the stationary Mewar Express, an overnight service from western Rajasthan to the capital.

From the AFP: Tripathi said initial reports suggested the Mewar Express was at a standstill because a passenger had pulled the emergency chain and the driver of the Goa express had overlooked a signal requesting him to stop.”

“R.D. Vajpayee, chief spokesman for northern railways, said that the company would pay 500,000 rupees (10,800 dollars) to the families of the dead.”

Nearly 18.5 million people ride the trains in the state-run transit system in India. There are 3oo train crashes a year in India.

Yesterday we reported on a crash between two Muni cars in San Francisco. Today (via the AP) the Union President says, “a light-rail operator blacked out just before his train crashed into a parked train, injuring dozens of passengers”. Apparently the blackout had to do with a medical condition. Four passengers were seriously injured in Saturday’s crash, including the driver.

From the AP, “The crash on Saturday afternoon injured 48 people, four seriously, in the latest in a series of commuter train wrecks in recent months in the U.S. None of the injuries were life-threatening.” Neither Turpin nor local transit officials would identify the driver, but said he started as a San Francisco bus driver in 1979 and switched to light rail in 2007. He was hospitalized after the crash and a drug test had been administered, which was standard procedure for crashes.

Let’s get it together! Enough with the crashes – especially because we believe more public transit is needed across the U.S.

What’s with all of the transit crashes lately? Today in San Francisco, two light rail Muni cars crashed on the outbound platform of West Portal Station. There were multiple injuries in the crash but none appeared life threatening.

CNN has more on the crash and notes, “Initial reports are that a one-car train traveling at low speed collided with a stopped one-car train, Muni spokesman Judson True said in a written statement. He said the collision occurred on the outbound platform of West Portal Station.”

The SF Muni website notes major service delays. From the website, “On Saturday, July 18th at 3:15 pm, SF Muni is advising major service delays on the K, L and M light rail lines due to an accident between two light rail vehicles. There is no light rail service between the West Portal and Castro station.”

A police officer told CNN, “Apparently the conductor for one of the trains miscalculated a turn. It’s still under investigation right now.”

Just a couple of weeks after the monorail crash at Disney World, today we have learned of a bus crash also at Disney World. The rear-end crash took place at the Contemporary Resort on Disney property. Approximately 50 people were on the two buses and 12 guests were injured in the accident.

Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said the company is conducting its own investigation and working with law enforcement to ensure the “well-being of those involved.” Disney sent representatives to the hospitals where passengers were being examined, she added.

The Orlando Sentinel has more on the bus crash.