SEARCH RESULTS
19 September 2004
Danger Train: Collision #63
The Danger Train suffered collision #63 this evening:
Two people suffered minor injuries after a car ran a red light and collided with a MetroRail train today in downtown Houston. The accident was the 61st involving a light rail train.
The accident occurred at about 4 p.m. at Main and Pierce. A northbound rail car collided with the car after the female driver failed to stop at a red light, said Metropolitan Transit Authority Police Chief Tom Lambert.
The unidentified driver and two children, ages 5 and 9, were uninjured but declined medical treatment, said Metro spokesman Ken Connaughton. Lambert said the driver was cited for running a red light.
Two light rail train travelers complained of arm injuries, but only one was transported to Ben Taub Hospital with minor injuries, Lambert said.
It was actually "incident" #63 by my count.
We are world class!
Incidentally, it comes on the same day David Wolff had this to say:
For nearly nine months now, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has had to deal with jokes and derisive news reports because of accidents between motor vehicles and MetroRail trains. Whatever the cause, there have been too many accidents.
Rather than blame drivers for whom traffic signals seem at best advisory, we have done our best to make the system more user-friendly.
I remember METRO Police Chief Lambert blaming drivers constantly until METRO apparently decided that he was a public relations disaster. Sorry, Mr. Wolff, but I'm not buying your whitewash. Maybe if METRO had engaged critical Houstonians a little more constructively in the beginning instead of treating us all like children, the organization would be the butt of fewer jokes and less derision.
But yes, there HAVE been too many accidents. I guess that admission can be regarded as progress.
(Update) KTRK-13's coverage of the latest accident is here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/19/04 20:41 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)
26 January 2005
Danger Train: Collision #75 (3)
KPRC-2 is reporting a Danger Train collision:
Two METRORail riders were injured Wednesday morning when the train they were riding collided with a passenger car in southwest Houston.
The collision occurred at 10:03 a.m. at Fannin and Hermann Drive, near the Museum District Fountains.
Police have not said who is responsible for the collision.
The victims were transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital. Their conditions have not been released.
It's hard to believe Metro police chief Tom Lambert didn't waddle himself out to denounce Houston drivers for being unsafe. Maybe he was having breakfast.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/26/05 12:14 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)
18 April 2004
Blame The Drivers? No, Blame The Politicians
The Comical's Lucas Wall notes the following in a story today:
Vehicles collided frequently along the Main Street corridor long before the MetroRail line was built, Texas Transportation Institute data show.Lambert, of course, never misses an opportunity to berate Houston's drivers rather than concede there might be problems with the light rail situation.Between 1998 and 2000, nearly 8,000 crashes were recorded along the 7 1/2-mile corridor where Metropolitan Transit Authority light rail trains now travel. Almost 2,000 were on Main and Fannin alone, two streets that make up most of today's rail route.
The pre-rail crash total averaged about 51 incidents per week, or roughly 7 1/2 per day.
Vehicles have collided with trains 35 times since the rail line was completed six months ago, a little more than one collision per week.
"The reality is, the driving public was experiencing these serious collisions before we ever put a different mode of transportation there," said Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert.
Wall, a writer who has taken the opportunity to editorialize in his news columns in the past, passes up the opportunity to point out that the decision to place the light rail along this already dangerous traffic corridor and then not to segregate it properly was a political decision that may not have weighed safety factors heavily enough.
That's the point I made recently in the comments section here, and that a reader makes in the comments section here.
Laurence brings additional wisdom to this topic.
In a related article, Lucas Wall announces:
He and other experts cite four primary reasons drivers are more likely to get into a wreck here:Wall then lists the following, and develops paragraphs around them: Sprawl, Less Investment, Less Enforcement, Motorcyle Officers, Poor Driver Education.
The astute reader will note that, in addition to being clumsy headings stylistically and substantively, there are five of them, not the announced four.
Does anybody edit that rag?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/04 15:42 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (2)
07 April 2004
Splish, Splash, We're World Class!
We may need to add yet another category for rail-related fun and hijinks in the Bayou City:
Another vehicle splashed into the Main Street Square fountain Tuesday, the 15th such incident since the downtown pedestrian mall opened Jan. 1, according to the Houston Downtown Management District.Fifteen people doing their best Ted Kennedy impersonation in our world-class fountain?!Metropolitan Transit Authority police said the 62-year-old driver was eastbound on McKinney about 1:30 p.m. and made an illegal right turn onto Main Street and went into the water. Main is closed to all vehicle traffic in the 1000 block, where Metro's rail tracks traverse the fountain.
The disabled Ford Aerostar van forced the closing of the southbound track for about 20 minutes. A tow truck removed the vehicle.
Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert said the driver was not cited for the illegal turn or ignoring the do-not-enter sign because officers determined heavy rain at the time limited visibility. The fountain wasn't damaged.
Wow. I knew of one or two incidents, but 15 is quite a few. Surely the design is not at fault, though, because we know METRO is infallible.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/07/04 11:01 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)
11 February 2004
Doug Carr -- That's C A R R -- Remember It!
A METRO cop has received a complaint for his second incident of buffoonery in a week, but maybe something will be done about it this time since the recipient of said buffoonery actually recorded it:
A METRO cop in hot water, caught on tape going way overboard.The METRO chief trotted out to say everything will be just fine:The officer was working what should have been a routine traffic stop of a taxi cab, but it's what he said to the driver -- all recorded by the driver -- that makes this a much bigger deal.
"How he took my driver's license was just crazy, like 'Just give it, give it, give it!'," said cab driver Amanuel Hadis.
Moments after being pulled over for allegedly running a red light at an intersection in downtown Houston, Hadis says he reached for his cell phone, not to make a call, but to record what he calls abuse from the METRO cop who stopped him.
[snip]
"He had a bad temper and I thought he was going to kill me or do something to me and I was afraid, scared of that."
The voice on the tape apparently belongs to Officer Doug Carr, a former president of the METRO Police Association. Hadis says Carr pulled him over after the front wheels of his cab touched or crossed the white lines of the pedestrian crossing.
Voice on tape: Let me tell you something, (expletive). You crossed that white line out there. That's running the red light, period. You want to argue with me or do you want to go to jail?Hadis is a naturalized citizen, originally from Ethiopia. He fled the civil-war torn country twelve years ago, but now says he's afraid to drive in downtown Houston.Voice on tape: We don't need your kind here. You can go back to where you come from if you don't want to abide by our laws. You understand me?
Hadis: Yes, sir
Voice on tape: Look at my name. Remember it. Remember C-A-R-R 'cause the next time I find you on a city street in Houston, Texas downtown and you (expletive) up and break the law, I will put your (expletive) in jail.
"Number one, I'm embarrassed for the agency and I want to apologize on behalf of all the staff," said METRO police chief Tom Lambert.From what I've seen of Tom Lambert's act, his best apology might be hanging Mayor White his letter of resignation. After firing Officer C-A-R-R.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/11/04 22:08 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (3)
19 April 2004
Danger Train (Life)Savings Time
Here's an interesting theory from the Japan Times:
Annual traffic accidents can be reduced by about 1.1 percent if Japan adopts daylight-saving time, according to projections released Monday by the Japan Productivity Center for Socioeconomic Development.If changing the clock by an hour will do all those wonderful things for Japan, I say we get serious here in Houston about our Danger Train problem.The center said the economic effect of turning the hands of the clock ahead an hour between April and October would be worth some 46 billion yen a year.
In recent years, the annual number of traffic accidents has hovered around 940,000, and police say statistics show they usually occur around dusk.
Center officials said calculations based on the percentage of accidents vis-a-vis traffic volume by time and season of occurrence show that about 10,000 accidents can be avoided by shifting to daylight-saving time.
It also said that under a daylight-saving regime, 10 percent fewer women would have their purses snatched on their way home from work and 4 percent fewer would be similarly victimized while shopping in the early evening.
That's right -- let's move the damn clocks forward 12 hours or so. Think of the crashes we'll avoid!
We'll charge METRO police chief Tom "Supercop" Lambert with issuing citations to all Houstonians who are not in compliance with Danger Train (Life)Savings Time. He seems well suited to the task.
(found the link at Brothers Judd)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/04 22:06 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
14 May 2005
Danger Train: Collision #89 (17) (1)
KTRK-13 reports that another driver blitzed through a red light to take on the Danger Train:
The same spot where the METRO light rail had its first deadly crash was closed off again Friday. Another crash happened late in the afternoon on Jefferson and Main.
Police say a woman traveling east on Jefferson ran a red light and slammed into the train which was headed south. Four people who were riding the rail had to be taken to the hospital.
The driver of the car was not injured, but she was ticketed for running a red light.
Earlier this week, a man was killed when police say he ran a red light in the same spot and was struck by a METRO rail train.
A truly "world-class" train would have enforced the right-of-way rules by killing the offending motorist -- ESPECIALLY on Friday the 13th!
Still, it has tasted blood. It will surely kill again.
(Update): Here's a goofy comment on the Houston Architecture Info Forum:
I wouldn't feel bad about one death in a year and a half. How many people die on Chicago's train system in a year? Maybe 20 or 30? Almost all of those are suicides. If you count the regional (Metra) rail, the number's more like 70, and mostly accidents.
Maybe in terms of crashes Houston's record is bad. But in terms of deaths, it seems to be doing pretty well.
That bolded part is some world-class spin!
I propose that METROrail adopt it as the new motto, and trot Chief Lambert out to pound it home.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/14/05 08:15 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (2)
20 August 2004
Danger Train: Collision #58
The crashes tend to come in bunches.
The Danger Train suffered another one just a while ago:
A Tarrant County prison van collided with a MetroRail train shortly before noon today downtown, injuring seven people.
The collision occurred near the intersection of Main and Commerce streets.
Five people in the van were taken to area hospitals with what police described as minor injuries. Two people on the train who were hurt declined treatment.
Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert said the accident occurred when the van tried to make an illegal right turn as it was southbound on Main. The MetroRail train was also heading south, having just pulled away from the University of Houston-Downtown station.
Crashes as a result of illegal RIGHT turns are new. Previously, crashes have been a result of LEFT turns into the train. However, this description doesn't seem right. I don't see how the van could turn right heading southbound on Main INTO the train. Maybe the van was on Commerce and turned into it?
FYI, it's not entirely clear what the proper crash number is now. John Gaver has received several tips that an unreported crash took place on 6 August, and I got a tip that an unreported crash took place yesterday. Be sure to keep an eye on his counter for any revisions in numbers.
(Update) More coverage from KTRK-13, KHOU-11, and KPRC-2.
(Update 2) Lucas Wall's Comical story linked above has been updated with additional information, not to mention grammatical errors.
(Update 3) Here is what Anne Linehan refers to in the comments below:
Metro's application, to be released later this afternoon, will include plans to build both rail extensions at street level just like the Main Street crash.
I think he means Main Street LINE, not crash. But the connection is so strong that he apparently couldn't avoid the slip.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/20/04 13:04 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)
28 December 2003
The Rail Boondoggle - cont'd
Rob Booth pulls this bit out of a Comical Q&A on light-rail:
How many people are expected to ride?Funny, but I remember all the rail proponents telling us this was a plan actually to reduce congestion, while those of us opposed to the cost of the thing pointed out that it wouldn't reduce congestion significantly, that there were less expensive/more efficient mass-transit options, and that light-rail was largely a boondoggle for developers and people who wanted to reshape Houston into their vision of a "world-class city."For all the hoopla, few Houstonians are expected to commute on the electric-powered trains. Metro has estimated daily ridership after the first year at 33,000, which translates into 16,500 people making roundtrips. That's not even 1 percent of the city's population.
Opponents fought the rail line every step of the way, decrying it as nothing more than an expensive toy that takes money away from highways. But supporters are optimistic that rail holds the potential to reshape the city and its ugly image, hoping the tracks attract hundreds of millions of dollars in new apartments, townhomes, restaurants, stores and office towers inside the Loop.
It looks like we opponents were right, if I'm reading light rail's biggest cheerleader (the Comical) correctly. They didn't admit any of this before the voting, of course.
Here's another fun answer:
Where are there likely to be trouble spots?It would have been easier and just as accurate to write "There are likely to be trouble spots along the whole line."The train travels at street level for its entire route, crossing dozens of intersections. Most are controlled by standard traffic lights, but there are railroad crossing gates and flashing lights at major locations.
Tom Lambert, Metro police chief, said troublesome areas include five intersections in the Texas Medical Center where cars must drive on the train tracks to make a left turn; the intersection of Main and Richmond, where the tracks turn from a protected area onto Main; and at the South Loop frontage road, which is the highest-speed road crossed by the train and also where the overhead wires dip below 15 feet, requiring a detour for tall trucks.
Putting rail at street level and mixing it with motor traffic creates a more dangerous situation for motorists. Period.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/03 21:12 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)
11 May 2005
Danger Train: Collision #88 (16) (1)
(Photo via KPRC-2)
Houston drivers and even a few pedestrians have done their best to take on the Danger Train.
Last night, the Danger Train demonstrated that the dark side of the force is powerful indeed:
A pickup driver was killed in downtown Houston late Tuesday when his vehicle was broadsided by a Metro light rail train, the first fatality on the rail line since it opened to the public in January 2004.
The accident happened shortly before 10:30 p.m. on southbound Main at Jefferson. The driver, who was killed on impact, was believed to be a man in his 30s. He was the only person in the Dodge pickup truck, police said.
[snip]
The front of the train ripped through the driver's side door and pushed the pickup about 50 feet along the tracks.
"The impact is right on the driver's door, which is kind of a weak part of the vehicle," said Sgt. G.T. Hall, with the Houston Police Department accident division.
The pickup truck came to a rest against the Downtown Transit Center stop at Main and Jefferson.
Police said four passengers on the train were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries. Eight other riders were not injured.
Accident investigators confirmed that the train operator — who wasn't injured — likely would not be found at fault because the victim ran a red light and may have been speeding.
" We're very confident that the fault lies with the deceased," Sgt. Hall said.
One hopes that METRO police chief Lambert does not show up at the funeral and try to issue the poor man's estate a citation.
The Chronicle's coverage includes this snippet near the end:
Critics blame the record number of accidents on the system's at-grade rail design, with some nicknaming the $324 million MetroRail "The Danger Train." Questions also have been raised about confusing signage and traffic lights along the rail line. Additionally, MetroRail tracks share the left-turn lanes with motorists in the Texas Medical Center area.
That's a pretty fair assessment of some of the design flaws, the sort of assessment we didn't always get from Lucas Wall. I can't imagine Lucas referring to the "Danger Train" in a story either.
Sadly, I've had to add a new category in parentheses to these Danger Train updates. The first item in parentheses is documented collisions this year. The second item in parentheses is Danger Train fatalities. The first item (no parentheses) is, of course, total collisions.
Laurence Simon posted an early update on the fatal collision.
(Update) Chris Elam posted a late-night update as well. The blogHOUSTON/PubliusTX.net night desks were obviously not staffed as well. :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/11/05 07:48 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (9)
08 March 2004
We're World Class!
I don't suppose those touting Houston as a World Class City were looking for this kind of exposure in USA Today:
For a full year, Houston tried to prepare its drivers to share the streets with the city's new light-rail transit system.No, it's a problem of rail not being well segregated from streets where drivers had developed driving patterns from years of experience. METRO's arrogance on that point and insistence that nothing could ever be wrong with their little choo-choo and how they've chosen to implement it contribute to the ongoing problem (oh, and for the record, the count is up to 23 accidents total).There were public service announcements, community forums and safety classes to educate drivers. The sleek trains were equipped with strobe lights, horns, bells and whistles to warn motorists.
A test of the safety campaign didn't fare well. An average of five drivers on Houston's streets each day plowed into trains while the system was working out its kinks before the Jan. 1 opening. Worried transit officials immediately launched more television ads. One had Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert growling, "So, what part of safety do we not understand?"
Nobody really knows the answer to that question. But since the MetroRail trains began running full time Jan. 1, there have been 15 more collisions. No one has died in the accidents. Police blame motorists in all of them. "It's not a rail problem," says Ken Connaughton of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. "It's a driver problem."
Indeed, the stretch of rail in Dallas that is not well segregated from traffic has experienced similarly high accident numbers:
Among the hazards are the street-level crossings. The train tracks run even with the street, rather than being elevated or underground. Traffic lights control almost all of the 64 crossings.Imagine that -- put heavy, dangerous railcars at street level where traffic patterns have long been established, and accidents occur. It sounds like the DART people are at least a little more honest and a little less arrogant about the nature of the problem than our METRO officials.That poses a problem for motorists, especially when turning left ahead of a train. At least half of the drivers involved in crashes have been cited for illegal turns.
"I'm not sure it's the drivers," says Morgan Lyons, a spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit. Most of the crashes in Dallas have come on a 3.1-mile stretch of the DART rail line where the crossings are all at street level, Lyons says.
Proponents of rail are starting to give away some of their real goals in interviews like this:
So what's the matter with Houston?For some, light rail is zoning by another name (and at much greater expense). They just rarely admit as much."No one walks here," says Stephen Klineberg, a sociology professor at Rice University in Houston who studies the city's transportation habits.
Almost everybody in Houston drives. The city has 3.9 million registered cars and one of the longest average commutes in America. "This is the most auto-dependent city in the nation," Klineberg says. Drivers aren't used to sharing their streets with 49-ton trains.
Houston's experience points up the clash of America's car culture with the advent of light rail. Houston is the 19th city with a light-rail system. Minneapolis will open its 11.6-mile line this year. Thirty-six cities have systems under construction or on the drawing board.
Transit ridership increased 22% nationwide the past six years, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Much of that increase is attributable to light rail. "We've seen phenomenal growth since the 1980s," says Greg Hull, the association's director of operations for safety and security.
Like other cities, Houston sees light rail as a key to reining in sprawl.
Houston was barely a dot on the map until the oil boom in the early 1900s. It grew until the oil bust of the 1980s. In between, the search for affordable housing pushed the metro area 50 miles from the center, creating a metropolitan area as large geographically as the state of New Jersey. A car was a necessity.
"This is a car city — it was built by, for and on behalf of the automobile," Klineberg says. "The 21st century is configured for a different reality."
Transit, or more specifically light rail, is seen as a way to spur a reconfiguration of the city to create a densely populated urban core, where a car is an amenity, not a necessity.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/04 13:07 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (13)
BLOG
» Create Account
» Log In
DISCLAIMER
Content and design copyright © 1997-2008, Kevin Whited.
Posts represent the views of Kevin Whited (and occasional guest bloggers) only, and do not necessarily reflect the views of employers, family, friends, or significant others.