San Francisco Blog

Jim Herd

A pair of culprits have emerged as the potential causes for the weekend's nasty Muni crash at West Portal station: Sources within Muni have told the media that the veteran driver reported he blacked out -- which wouldn't have been a problem if the driver didn't shift his train from automatic to manual operation while coming out of the tunnel, an apparent violation of Muni policy.

Irwin Lum, the president of the Transit Workers Union, confirmed to SF Weekly that the driver told him he blacked out prior to the accident. But, perhaps more interestingly, Lum said that the early switch to manual power fingered as a cause of this accident was an "understood practice" adopted by Muni drivers and tolerated by management in a quest for better on-time performance.

As San Francisco transit riders know, Muni Light Rail Vehicles switch to automatic, computer-operated mode when entering the subterranean tunnels -- becoming, in essence, very large electric trains. When exiting the tunnel at West Portal Station, Lum said that "accepted practice" used to be for drivers to call in to receive authorization to switch back to manual -- which speeds up the disembarkation process. In recent years, however, Lum said that drivers, in the name of expediency, stopped making those calls. Management, he claims, did not voice any objections, as this enhanced Muni's on-time rate. 

"It's a situation where it's an understood practice and management has known about that for years," said Lum. "But people turned the other way because they want to get the trains in and out of the tunnel as fast as possible, and passengers complain when they have to sit idle."

While management benefited from the allegedly open contravening of Muni policy by being able to onboard and offboard trains more rapidly, drivers gained by placating surly crowds. Lum said that, prior to simply switching to manual and driving up to the platform, riders had been known to grow impatient and hit the emergency release button, then file off en masse at West Portal station.

Lum added that the driver of the train had a "pretty clean " record in his 30 years with Muni. When asked what "pretty clean" meant, the union head noted that "everyone has some kind of little stupid stuff" -- but nothing along the lines of triggering a major pileup via a disturbing blackout problem. While Lum was unwilling to say that the driver will never operate a Muni vehicle again, he did say that getting medical clearance to do so would be more difficult than for a civilian who claimed a blackout in his or her personal vehicle led to an accident. And, speaking of personal vehicles, Lum believes the train operator's personal driver's license will be revoked (our calls to the DMV have not yet been returned).

Finally, the union head noted that, in a quest for improved on-time performance, Municipal Transportation Authority board members have proposed raising the speed limit for trains in portions of the Muni tunnels from the current 40 mph to 50 mph. "We've got old equipment down there. To run it [at 50 mph] to come out one minute ahead of schedule -- I wouldn't go for that," said Lum.

When asked if that proposal was now dead, Lum replied "It should be."

Photo   |   Jim Herd