MUNI Accidents Never Seem to Stop

Three people were hospitalized on Friday, August 3rd, when a car got crushed between a San Francisco Municipal Railway electric bus and an antique streetcar on Market Street. It occurred approximately 12:25 PM near First Street. A woman with a child, driving a small white car, had come to a legal stop behind a MUNI electric bus when a streetcar rammed her car from behind. The impact was hard enough to drive the car forward under the rear end of the electric bus, and pinning the occupants inside. A remarkably similar accident occurred on August 3, 2009, at Castro and Market Streets, when an SUV was similarly slammed from behind by an antique street car into the rear end of another antique streetcar. In that accident, news reports indicated that MUNI has a rule requiring streetcars to maintain a 250 foot distance between cars, which permits more than enough stopping distance for these older-model trains that lack many of the modern electronic-supported braking capabilities found on newer cars.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but early information released by MUNI states the streetcar operator appears to have pulled the emergency brake on the antique vehicle just before striking the car.

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