Man Who Lost Leg in Muni Accident Dies

By Alan Scherstuhl Mon., Apr. 23 2012 at 2:03 PM

UPDATE 2 p.m.: Paul Rose, spokesman with Muni, confirmed that the wheelchair-using victim of today's Muni accident has died. The medical examiner has not yet identified the man.

UPDATE: 12:20 p.m.: Muni spokesman Paul Rose confirms that the victim is alive, has lost a leg, and is now at a hospital. He says no Muni lines are currently running through Civic Center, although service is expected to be restored within an hour or two.

UPDATE, 12:15 p.m.: Eyewitness Caleb Mingle, a Muni rider, says that the victim was a bald white male whose leg was severed and had to be removed from the track. Mingle says the victim appeared alive when emergency personnel moved him off the tracks.

The Muni side of the Civic Center station is currently closed, SF Weekly's Joe Eskenazi reports from the scene, where he counts 11 police cars at the station and several ambulances.

Multiple emergency personnel and Muni spokespersons have confirmed that a Muni train has made "contact" with a pedestrian, but the who and how are currently unclear, as is the pedestrian's condition. Whatever the situation is, it's big enough that Muni Transit Director John Haley has arrived. Meanwhile, police are treating this as a crime scene.

We'll update as soon as we know more.

Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF and @SFWeekly

Tags:

Civic Center, Muni accident, Muni train, Muni vs. Pedestrian

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Lorenzo1420

when I entered the muni station from 6th street I heard some one yelling for help but didn't think too much of it. After i bought a ticket I went down to catch the m train and seen I guy running towards me. when i turned around i seen the old handicapped man in the tracks trying to get up and out. We both ran towards this guy and also tried to flag down the train as it came closer. This dude got hit by the train because me n this guy stopped running to him and instead tried to alert the driver. As the train hit him he was trying to back up onto the edge of the platform his right side facing the train. The M train hit this guy at normal speed making a scary sound and launching him in the air. At the same time his opposite left lag got snagged but the left side of the train and completed amputated from the top of the femur. As he hit the floor of the platform, he held out his left arm and look right at me and this other dude who was running with me with a look of stun, that we didn't save him or that he just got hit or pretty much why did u guys stop running to me?.. I looked at this guy and just said that we FUCKED UP. I Immediately used my belt as a turnicuit and tried not to panic as this guy bled out. Sorry to share all the details but I am forever traumatized by this accident and fuckn hate MUNI for not hearing or seeing this guys yells for help. . lorenzo1420@gmail.com

Mike

Thanks for the personal account, Lorenzo. Your report is fuller and clearer -- and makes more sense -- than any of the professional news accounts. As I note above, I was on the Muni car and have come to the conclusion that if one ever has a choice about such things, choose to be on the Muni car and very confused about what happened rather than standing on the platform and witnessing the entire grisly accident unfold. The look of horror on the faces of the people on the platform was the most horrific thing I saw that morning. Hope you find some peace of mind, sooner rather than later, with regard to a chain of events that were, after all, beyond your control. --Mike (My experience inside the car: The driver did make a desperate, stomach-churning attempt to brake the train.)

daniel

i was there holding dudes leg after it happened until the paramedics came it changed my life to try to help that guy. may r,i,p my grief goes out to his family

olivia rodriguez

Yea I was on the platform he was deffinetly drunk, but my prayers to him and the driver he was really hurt you can see in his eyes.

edward meirrie

This was a tragic accident and my prayers go out to the vitim as well as the driver, because he was pretty distraut knowing that he had no control to stop, swereve, or anything as when you are under the tunnel the train and speed is pre controled. I am sure both families are going to need support. My prayers I ask in Jesus Christ name our savoir forever amen....

guest

the guy was drunk

Keith Kemp

not anymore

DaveRave

I hope the lawsuit lottery people can calm down their boners until fact finding determines what happened here.

Whereas the bus can swerve and hit you, the train's direction is... well, limited to the tracks. If a train is near why would anyone be on or near the tracks?

Maybe Muni is at fault, maybe not. Just relax. Unless of course you're acquainted with this gentleman, in which case you're probably very upset.

Mike

I was on the Muni car that hit the man. I didn't see the actual accident, but, as we were kept on the car for quite some time, I know that the man was being tended to on the platform between the front door and the first set of double doors of the stopped car. How he could have been "removed from the tracks" at that point seems a bit of a mystery. People in the car thought he had been (sitting?) on or at the edge of the platform with his leg out and had been dragged to where he ended, though of course people standing on the platform would, I think, have a better idea of what actually happened. Maybe he had been on the tracks and was trying to get back on the platform when the train struck?