Woman injured when Light Rail train hits pickup (Nathan Gonzalez, Arizona Republic)

One passenger was slightly injured when a Metro Light Rail train slammed into a pickup Sunday morning.

The 2003 Chevrolet pickup was traveling eastbound on Van Buren Avenue at Central Avenue about 7:15 a.m., when it failed to stop at a red traffic light, said Phoenix Police Sgt. Tommy Thompson.

The train was unable to stop as it traveled northbound and collided with the passenger side of the pickup, which was carrying four people, including the 29-year-old male driver, a woman and two young children.

[snip]

Five passengers aboard the Light Rail were not injured. The collision halted service of the train for about 45 minutes.

Wow, it’s not just Houston’s bad drivers who have trouble with trains. Bad drivers are in other places too!

Nicely done, Phoenix. Keep up the good work!

Here’s a fun photo I snapped earlier with my cameraphone:

I’m in the Jeep, headed east on Elgin at Main.

The pickup driver is making an illegal left turn headed southbound on Main. He is sitting on TWO Danger Train tracks as he waits for traffic to clear (in the rain) so that he can make his illegal turn.

Sadly, the Danger Train was nowhere to be found. I was all set to document the collision!

A bicyclist rode into the Danger Train today, and was dragged 50 feet.

I don’t think this sort of thing happens nearly so often in cities that segregate their rail lines from busy streets.

Metro train hits car making illegal turn onto Fannin (Houston Chronicle)

Police are investigating an accident at the Texas Medical Center today involving a Metropolitan Transit Authority light rail train, officials said.

According to preliminary information, the light rail train struck the car about 12:20 p.m. after the driver made an illegal left turn from John Freeman onto Fannin, authorities said.

There were no reported injuries, Metro officials said.

Drivers still haven’t learned to watch out for the Danger Train!

It is going to be fun when drivers start running into the thing along the much busier Westpark Richmond line.

Teen Stabbed With Screwdriver On Train (KPRC-2 News)

A man with a screwdriver stabbed a teenager on a light-rail train Wednesday afternoon in downtown Houston, officials told KPRC Local 2.

METRO police said a 30-year-old man stabbed the teen just before 4 p.m. as the teen went to exit the train at the Ensemble METRO light-rail station on Main Street at Holman.

Why a screwdriver?

Several injured in Houston light rail train collision (Houston Chronicle)

A light rail train struck a sport utility vehicle in downtown Houston today when the driver went through a stop light at the intersection, Metro police said. The train hit the Chrysler Aspen broadside about 3:15 p.m. on Main at Pease.

The driver and the passenger in the SUV were taken to hospitals, along with about seven people in the train who said the accident injured them, authorities said. Their conditions were not immediately known. The accident remains under investigation.

Hey, I have a GREAT idea — let’s build MORE light rail down the middle of busy, congested surface streets and see what happens!

UPDATE: KTRK-13 posts photos.

UPDATE 2: KHOU-11 reports. And KPRC-2.

UPDATE 3: KTRK-13 reports (on air, no link yet) tonight that a METRO bus hit a pedestrian tonight. METRO admitted its driver was at fault. However, that must be mistaken, as defenders of METRO insist the organization is never at fault for anything, ever.

UPDATE 4: Here is the Chron story about UPDATE 3:

A Metro bus struck and injured a woman in downtown Houston this afternoon.

The bus was turning from Walker onto Bagby shortly before 5 p.m. when it hit the woman, who was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital with arm, neck and back injuries, said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts.

No one on the bus was injured in the accident.

The bus driver was at fault because the woman had the right of way as a pedestrian, Roberts said.

She said the driver will undergo drug testing and an investigation by First Transit, the company that runs garages for Metro.

Runs garages? Umm, a garage didn’t hit a pedestrian. A bus did.

Woman in wheelchair struck by Metro train (KHOU-11 News)

A woman in an electric wheelchair was recovering Friday evening after being struck by a Metro train.

The incident occurred around 6 p.m. on Main at McKinney.

The woman had apparently just exited the train when her chair was clipped by another train.

No word yet on her condition, but her chair was split in two.

1 hurt when Metro train collides with scooter (Lindsay Wise, Houston Chronicle)

A light-rail train collided with a motorized scooter in downtown Houston Friday afternoon, sending the woman rider to the hospital, Metro officials said.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Main and McKinney about 5:30 p.m. when a 47-year-old woman driving a motorized scooter tried to cross Main Street, said Metro spokeswoman Sandra Aponte Salazar.

“Evidently she didn’t see the train going southbound and it clipped the rear wheel of her scooter,” Salazar said.

The woman was thrown from her scooter, which broke into two pieces, Salazar said.

She was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital with injuries that are not considered life-threatening, Salazar said.

Though undamaged, the train was taken out of service and all passengers of were off-loaded, she said. The southbound line experienced a 15 minute delay, Salazar said.

The accident is under investigation, she said.

Our Danger Train is an equal-opportunity predator!

I nearly missed this story, as the incident took place the day I left for Athens.

Around lunchtime today, I was headed westbound in Midtown and was stopped at Main.

The lights have been out of sync for a few days, which means I’ve seen the train stuck and waiting in traffic for the “go” signal several times.

Today, the train was waiting well behind the crossing, headed in the direction of the Med Center (putting it to my right).

A beat up work truck was on the far right side of the train also on Main, pulled further up in the intersection, also headed towards the Med Center.

The second the traffic on Main got the green, the driver of the work truck floored it, cut in front of the train, and flipped an illegal u-turn back onto main, headed towards downtown.

The train had barely started inching forward. If it had taken off when it got its signal, that truck would have been in some kind of difficulty.

I know Houston drivers are horrible (and despite the fun I have with the “Danger Train” I do concede that driver error is mostly responsible for the crazy number of Danger Train incidents, even though aspects of the design contribute to the poor safety record), but THAT maneuver is just about tops of things I have personally witnessed.

Wow.

Child hurt when car hits MetroRail train (Houston Chronicle)

A child suffered minor injuries after a car struck a light rail train in downtown Houston this afternoon, authorities said.

The car, traveling on Congress near Main about 4 p.m., ran a red light before striking the MetroRail train, said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts.

The child was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital with minor injuries, Roberts said.

No other injuries were reported.

The train was replaced, Roberts said, and MetroRail has resumed normal operations.

The local media don’t bother to report most of these collisions anymore. I’m not quite sure what made this one any different. Maybe that a child was injured?

Meanwhile, METRO continues plans to build even more at-grade rail right in the middle of some of the busier surface streets in Houston. That seems like a really good idea.

We don’t get to have as much fun with Danger Train collisions these days, since the numbers have gone down some and the media rarely reports the collisions that still occur, but here’s a rare report nonetheless from KHOU-11:

A woman and her infant were taken to the hospital after her SUV collided with a Metro light rail train. A Metro spokesman said the woman ran a red light causing the accident.

The collision occurred at the intersection of Main and Bell just before 4 p.m. Thursday. The unidentified woman and her infant were taken by ambulance to St. Luke