California Personal Injury Blog - Mass Transit (Airline, Cruise Ship, Train, Bus)

Bus crash injures 19 people in Los Angeles

Claude Wyle — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:11:56 GMT

They say that misery loves company, and if so, this might be one of the few times that San Francisco loves LA. A Los Angeles county bus collided with another vehicle last week in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, injuring 19 people, one critically.

San Francisco has had more than its share of Muni accidents, the latest of which involved an inbound L-Taraval smashing into an outbound K-Ingleside at the West Portal Station this July. In that accident, 4 people suffered severe injuries and 43 suffered moderate to severe injuries.

Fortunately, the Los Angeles accident was slightly less serious. Apparently the accident involving a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus happened around 6 p.m. Friday. Ten people were taken to the hospital. One person was reported to be in critical condition. The other injuries were described as minor to moderate.

As personal injury attorneys, we are always distressed by accidents involving common carriers such as Muni. One of our main concerns is that the trauma may cause you to forgo your rights. When an injury is caused by a Muni bus, streetcar or cable car, a claim must be brought against the City within six months of the date of the accident. Know your rights!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Claude Wyle

Metrolink Settles Most Cases from 2005 Glendale Train Crash

Paul Kiesel — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:33:29 GMT

From the Los Angeles Times:

After years of legal wrangling, Metrolink has settled most of the outstanding lawsuits arising from the 2005 Glendale crash that killed 11 people and injured about 180, the second-deadliest in Metrolink’s history, attorneys said.

Metrolink has agreed to pay $30 million to settle the majority of the approximately 150 claims and lawsuits filed against Metrolink, according to the lead plaintiff's attorney.

The remaining cases are expected to be resolved in the next month, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.

Any cases that are not settled are scheduled to go to trial in January.

Metrolink could not immediately be reached for comment.

A claims report in a July agenda for Metrolink’s board said it would be paying $3,901,500 in seven recently resolved lawsuits. Most of the cases involving serious injuries and fatalities were settled in a flurry of mediation talks in the last six months, attorneys said.

Plaintiffs' attorneys said Metrolink showed little interest in settling the larger cases until this April, more than four years after the Jan. 26, 2005, incident, which was the most severe in its history until last year’s Chatsworth crash.

“There was a sea change in attitude,” said Jerry Ringler, the lead plaintiff’s attorney, said in a recent interview. “I think we developed liability theories that were extremely powerful.”

In the 2005 crash, a Compton laborer parked his Jeep Grand Cherokee on the tracks and doused the interior with gasoline in what he later claimed was a suicide attempt.

A three-car southbound train, which was being pushed by a locomotive, slammed into the car, skidded down the tracks, then derailed. The lead passenger car crashed into an idle freight train, jackknifed and collided into a passenger train going the opposite direction on its way to Burbank.

“Thus far, we believe the Glendale settlements have been fair and reasonable given that Juan Alvarez, who parked his jeep on the Metrolink right-of-way, has been subsequently convicted of 11 counts of first-degree murder,” Ringler said in a statement released today.

Click here for the rest of the article.

And click here to read archived blogs related to Metrolink.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Paul Kiesel

Public Justice Formally Joins Bleed Air Lawsuit

Brandon West — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:14:24 GMT

For Terry Williams, the health effects of contaminated bleed air have been life altering. A flight attendant for 17 years, Ms. Williams suffered injuries preventing her from working, from taking care of her children, and from functioning in a manor she would consider normal. Doctors have connected her injuries with an exposure to bleed air contaminated with toxic engine oil fumes.

“Public Justice is joining this case because toxic bleed air is a problem of national importance,” said Leslie Brueckner, the lead Public Justice attorney on the case. “One of Public Justice’s core missions is to use damage litigation to compensate victims of corporate misconduct. Success in this case will also create a financial incentive for Boeing to get the poison out of the air breathed by its passengers and crew members.”

The case focuses on the design of the passenger ventilation system used by McDonnell-Douglas on the MD-82, which ‘bleeds’ compressed air off from the engines and is routed back to the passenger compartment. The design of the airplane’s ventilation system would permit toxic chemicals from burned engine oil or hydraulic fluid to enter the cabin air supply without filtration.

This case could have broad reach in the travel industry in regards to public health and safety. For airlines, this could start a pro-active process in addressing safety issues like contaminated bleed air before people are injured.

Toxic Bleed Air – Additional Information

The complaint: Williams v. McDonnell Douglas Corp.

Prior coverage: Airplane Ventilation System Defect the Focus of Air Bleed Contamination Case

Informative reading: The Airliner Cabin Environment and the Health of Passengers and Crew

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Brandon West

Metrolink Still Struggling with Saftey Improvements

Paul Kiesel — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:18:10 GMT

From the Los Angeles Times:

As the anniversary of the Sept. 12 Chatsworth train disaster approaches, officials with Southern California's sprawling commuter rail service are facing a vexing array of technical, financial and potential legal challenges as they struggle to deliver on pledges of trailblazing safety reforms.

A burst of energy to remake the region's Metrolink train operation was unleashed by the deadliest rail collision in modern California history, a watershed event that killed 25, injured 130 and prompted landmark federal mandates to modernize the nation's rail safety systems.

Today, the rush to reform Metrolink -- a thinly staffed hybrid transportation agency once derided as the political stepchild of the five counties that created it -- is becoming increasingly costly, time-consuming and complicated.

Labor leaders are digging in to fight an unprecedented push by agency officials to place locomotive train crews under continuous video surveillance.

Technical and financial challenges loom over an ambitious schedule to a deploy a $200-million collision-avoidance network for all commuter, freight and intercity trains moving across hundreds of miles of track.

Meanwhile, Metrolink officials have reversed course on an effort to assume direct control over hiring, training and supervising rail crews, a move prompted partly by disclosures that in Chatsworth, an engineer employed by a contractor apparently ran a red light while sending a text message on his cellphone just before colliding head-on with a freight train.

Fearing that trying to manage on-board train crews could overtax staff and trigger thorny labor issues, Metrolink's board of directors opted to farm out the critical function again, this time to Amtrak.

Compounding financial strains, ridership has been sliding since the crash, largely because of lower gas prices and the recession. Fare revenues dropped $1.4 million below estimates in the last quarter alone.

And operating insurance premiums recently surged $1 million above estimates because of Metrolink's accident history over the last decade, averaging one potentially catastrophic liability payout every two years, records show.

Although no major wrecks have occurred since Chatsworth, smaller accidents involving cars and pedestrians are running about the same this year as last -- 3.25 and 3.4 per month, respectively, the agency says.

But a rash of incidents leading up to this week's memorial observances has served as a reminder of the risks Metrolink confronts in its heavily urban mixed-rail environment.

Click here for the rest of the article.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Paul Kiesel

Airplane Ventilation System Defect the Focus of Air Bleed Contamination Case

Brandon West — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:37:06 GMT

For former flight attendant Terry Williams, there is no doubt in her mind that the ventilation system used on the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 is defective, potentially exposing passengers and airline employees to dangerous toxic chemicals. Unfortunately for Ms. Williams, part of the proof is in the permanent side effects she lives with daily after being exposed to toxic chemicals that entered the cabin through a malfunction of the plane’s bleed air ventilation system.

In addition to recirculating cabin air, the MD-82 utilizes a system that bleeds off compressed air from the engines and after cooling, routes into the cabin. Through normal use, oil, hydraulic fluid and other contaminants can sometimes enter the compressor side of the engine, releasing toxic gases as they burn, which is then pumped back into the cabin. This gas contains toxic organophosphates known as TCPs (tricresyl phosphate), a chemical found in nerve agents, pesticides and insecticides which is known to cause dizziness, fatigue, respiratory diseases, bronchial spasms, and neurological impairments in cognitive functioning, headaches, speech impairments, and peripheral neuropathies, including uncontrolled tremors. At this time, no civilian commercial aircraft utilizing a bleed air ventilation system is currently equipped with any filtration, sensors or warning system to alert crews to contaminants in the air of the cabin or flight deck.

Studies Show Toxic Fume Events Occur Daily on Flights

As reported by CNN, studies on fume events show they are more common than one might think. A National Research Council report in 2002, using data from three Canadian airlines, said that on one aircraft model, nearly four out of 1,000 flights had a fume event.

The Committee on Toxicity in the United Kingdom, a group made up of independent experts who advise government agencies, said in September 2007 that pilots reported events in 1 percent of flights and that maintenance inspected and confirmed incidents in 0.05 percent of flights.

"These frequency estimates may all sound low, but consider that there were 10.65 million flights on U.S. registered aircraft in 2008. Even 0.05 percent of flights translates into about 14 events per day," said Judith Murawski, an industrial hygienist with the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, who has studied the issue for more than nine years.

Public Justice Lawyers Representing Rights of Flight Attendant

Public Justice Foundation members Mike Withey and Alisa Brodkowitz filed suit against McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, the manufacturers of the MD-82 aircraft, in Washington state court on April 9, 2009. The suit alleges that McDonnell Douglas and Boeing designed, manufactured, and sold an aircraft that is defective under Washington law in the design of its environmental control system, bleed air system, air delivery system, filtration system, and ventilation system.

The defendants filed an answer on August 11, 2009. The answer generally denied any product defect but admitted that the industry has, “for decades,” been aware of “bleed air contamination” and that TCP is a toxic substance.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Brandon West

New Safety Guidelines Implemented After Muni Accident

Claude Wyle — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:15:00 GMT

Many people have been injured or killed in public transit accidents over the last four months. The most current incident is last week’s crash here in San Francisco, in which nearly fifty people were injured. In the wake of this accident, Muni operators have implemented new measures designed to protect the public. Drivers will no longer be able to switch trains from automatic to manual control without permission of a dispatcher. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority said that it had seen no “impact on service,” since implementation of the new regulations. Well, it would be odd if they had, as it has been in effect for less than three days.

Strangely, these new measures are oddly reminiscent of the old safety measures. These are the same measures that the management of Muni has already declined to enforce. Some, notably Irwin Lum, head of the union which represents drivers of Muni light rail trains, have suggested that the operators of the Muni disregarded these rules as a matter of course. Lum maintains that these new rules are being circulated largely to make it appear that Henry Gray, the driver of the L train involved in Saturday’s accident, had done something wrong.

The management of the Muni system are operating a common carrier. This means that they are required to take the highest level of care to ensure the safety of the riding public. This is as it should be. If in fact management has, for “the past three or four years” been allowing drivers to decide when to change from automatic to manual control, then they, and not the driver in this incident, are responsible for the injured passengers. Moreover, they should not be able to escape that responsibility simply by implementing “new” cosmetic reforms which are little more than those they already had in place but declined to enforce.

Clearly the pressure is on operators of public transit systems to ensure that these incidents stop. Over the past year more than thirty people have been killed and more than 150 injured in a cross-continental series of crashes. The public demands safer transit. What the public doesn’t want is for these issues to be swept back under the rug by a series of management decisions which in essence change nothing. These “new” policies appear to be little more than old wine in new bottles. We are entitled to better.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Claude Wyle

Video of West Portal Muni Light Rail Crash Released

Claude Wyle — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:15:00 GMT

I've been keeping my readers updated on last Saturday's Muni Metro accident in the West Portal station, including today's earlier post about how switching to manual control before entering a station may have been common practice for years and even condoned by management since it increases on-time arrivals.

According to today's Examiner:

As of this past Monday, train operators will be written up if they are observed in manual, or cutout, mode without authorization from central control.

Additionally, if a train is seen moving in manual without central control permission, the train controller will stop the train and contact its operator. Hourly announcements started Monday to remind operators that they must not go into manual mode or bypass any vehicle function, or change operating modes, without approval from central control.

Yesterday SFGate.com released several angles of the crash captured on video. I've included one below, but you can see how lucky it is that more people weren't injured by viewing all their Muni accident videos.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Claude Wyle

Disengaged Safeguards Focus of Muni Light Rail Crash

Claude Wyle — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:59:45 GMT

It has been less than a week since two Muni Metro trains collided in San Francisco, injuring nearly fifty people. This crash has been only the latest in a series of accidents that have made the last year or so one of the deadliest in mass-transit history. There have been four major accidents beginning in fall 2008, when a passenger train in Los Angeles, under the control of an engineer distracted while texting, slammed into a freight train, killing 25. In Boston, in May of this year, yet another operator distracted by his cell phone crashed his trolley into the rear end of another, destroying three trolley cars and injuring fifty people. The cause of the Washington D.C. Metro accident in June has yet to be determined. That accident cost nine people their lives, including the operator of the train, Jeanice McMillan, and injured another eighty. There has not been enough time to determine the cause of Saturday’s accident. And yet, those in charge of the system have already begun fighting to shift responsibility.

Here are the facts that appear to be undisputed at this moment. Last Saturday afternoon, as a Muni K train sat at the West Portal station discharging passengers, a Muni L train piloted by Henry Gray entered the station at 20 to 23 mph, nearly twice its normal speed, and struck the K train from behind. All parties appear to concede that Gray had switched the train from automatic to manual control before entering the station. This morning the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Gray told investigators that he blacked out immediately after changing to manual control.

The interesting things of course, are the items that the various parties cannot agree on. For instance, Irwin Lum suggests that for several years it has been a common practice for drivers to change to manual control before entering the station. Lum, president of the union that represents metro drivers, appears to be suggesting that Muni Metro bent its own safety regulations in order to give passengers a faster ride. Unsurprisingly, the head of Muni, Nathaniel Ford took umbrage at any suggestion the organization had bent any rules. In a prepared statement, Ford reiterated that safety is top priority.

Should the allegations of union head Lum prove to be accurate, this will be the first crash in recent history caused not by a mechanical failure or individual driver error, but instead by the negligence of the actual operators of the train system. If it is the case that officials within the Muni Metro organization have for years disregarded their own safety regulations, then they have a small amount of blood on their hands, as fortunately no one was killed in this incident. Trains are common carriers, and as such they have a duty to use the highest care and vigilance in order to keep their passengers safe. If these allegations are correct, the operators of the Muni system have failed in that duty.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Claude Wyle

San Francisco Muni Light Rail Trains Collide

Claude Wyle — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:01:27 GMT

In the last three months, nine people have been killed, and more than 170 injured in a series of crashes on the nation’s aging public transit systems. This horrific streak began in Boston, on May 8, when a trolley rear-ended another, sending forty-nine people to local hospitals and causing $9 million in damages, including the loss of three trolley cars. This accident was apparently caused by an inattentive trolley driver who was busy texting. In June, the District of Columbia saw the worst crash in the history of the Metro, with nine deaths and over seventy passengers injured when a metro train rear-ended another. The cause of this crash has yet to be determined, and as the driver was one of the fatalities, this may take some time.

This past Saturday, the run of accidents continued in San Francisco, where nearly fifty people had to be hospitalized after a San Francisco Municipal L train rear-ended a parked K train. Currently, the crash is under investigation, with a union spokesman indicating the driver of the L train blacked out before the accident and a Muni spokesman saying that investigators will look at human and mechanical factors.

So, what can we as passengers on public transit do to keep ourselves safe? First, go to the website of your local transit organization. Most should have a list of safety tips for riders. Here for instance, is the list for BART passengers in San Francisco.

Much of the responsibility for a safe ride is in the hands of the designers and operators of the light rail systems. However, there are things you can do to improve your safety. Basically what all of these tips have in common is the need for passengers to be informed:

- Find out where the emergency phones are
- Find out how to safely evacuate the vehicle in the event of an accident
- Find out where the emergency door releases are
- Find out where the fire extinguishers are located

Public transit is miraculously convenient; we can let someone else handle the driving as we commute to and from work. But, before you settle down to read the paper, catch a brief cat-nap, or get some work done, please inform yourself about what to do in an emergency.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Claude Wyle

Fifty injured in San Francisco public transit accident.

Claude Wyle — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:11:39 GMT

I have posted an article about Muni train safety over on my San Francisco blog. It notes the importance of being aware of your surroundings while using public transportation and steps you should take before settling in for your ride:

- Find out where the emergency phones are
- Find out how to safely evacuate the vehicle in the event of an accident
- Find out where the emergency door releases are
- Find out where the fire extinguishers are located

This in light of the Muni light rail accident this weekend that injured nearly 50 people. While we can't prevent all incidents, it's important to know what to do in case of an emergency.

A video from the Associated Press about the story is below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-w9BcUxnBo

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Claude Wyle