Video recently surfaced of an incident where a San Francisco Muni train operator appears to doze off while the train was in motion, until she got jolted awake by the train hitting a curve at 50 mph, or about five-times the speed the train normally travels. Fortunately the driver was able to slow the speeding train and the Wednesday morning commuters only experienced jostling, and some fell due to the sudden motion according to ABC News and the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Authority (SFMTA). The incident occurred on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at a little after 8:30 a.m..
The moment that the train left a tunnel traveling at 50 mph, it hit a curve that jolted the driver awake and jostled the passengers in the crowded train car, before barreling past the Duboce Park Muni stop and hitting another curve while speeding. What appears to be a black BMW narrowly avoided a collision with the speeding train before it finally came to a stop.
SFMTA says operator fatigue caused the incident
The video footage shows the driver standing up and speaking to the passengers after the train finally stopped. She tells the passengers that the train would not stop, and she told them to relax repeatedly. SFMTA investigation revealed that the train was not malfunctioning, and that the incident was due to operator fatigue. Reporting by NBC Bay Area found that the operator in question had logged 58 hours in the two weeks leading up to the incident, and the operator remains on “nondriving status.”
This occurred on the Muni N-Judah train, which was a two-car train that was headed inbound toward downtown San Francisco on a Wednesday morning. SFMTA said Muni light rail trains usually travel at a speed of 8-to-10 mph, so this train was traveling near five-times the normal rate of speed. SFMTA Director Julie Kirschbaum said in a statement that “Safety is always our top priority. We are committed to accountability in response to this specific unacceptable incident and we are taking all necessary steps to keep Muni safe and reliable for all riders and the public.”
