Wham-Bam-Tram crashes may be higher than reported
This is preliminary, which is why I am posting this here, rather than on the Houston Pages of Action America.Action America is in receipt of a report from Metro, showing previously unreported incidents on 8/12 and 8/14. Both were at Fannin and TCH. The first report reads, "Vehicle turned into shared left turn left in front of train". The second report reads, "Vehicle merged into shared left turn left into the train".
With such accurate descriptions and command of the English language, by Metro, is it any wonder that we have so much trouble determining which occurrences are accidents and which are only incidents?
Anyway, we are trying to obtain more information about those incidents and will report them, as soon as we have that information.
Also, we are trying to get information on a Wham-Bam-Tram crash that was supposed to have occurred on Friday. I understand that it was reported on the Channel 2 evening news, but it does not show up on their web site. If anyone has information about any of the above occurrences, please let us know. You can either post a comment here or use our Feedback Form on Action America.
posted by ActionAmerica @ 9/12/2005 12:03:00 AM Permalink
3 Comments:
Thanks, Don. I knew that one of our readers would have the straight info on that crash. Did you get an exact time on it?
It was interesting that there were so few riders on the Wham-Bam-Tram, yet so many needed hospitalization.
We have not compiled the number of accidents along what is now the MetroRail line, because at least two mobility groups, including Texans for True Mobility, did that, prior to groundbreaking and their numbers reveal that the accident rate along that route was four times the average for the rest of the city.
Metro and the City of Houston were warned that they were planning to put the tram along one of the worst possible routes in the entire city, long before plans were firmed up, yet they ignored those FACTS, from the city's own records and pushed their own ill-concieved plan forward. This is just one of the several major reasons why the Wham-Bam-Tram has, by far, the worst crash record for a light-rail system, in the history of mechanized transit.
In fact, considering the fact that the route history, prior to construction of the Wham-Bam-Tram, was four times the city average, we divided the crashes per route mile, for the Wham-Bam-Tram by four and found that it is far greater than the previous worst record, held by the San Francisco MUNI system.
Other things, such as the non-contrasting color of the rail cars, the at-grade rails and rail crossings, the "quiet horns" and an unsafe speed limit for the tram, have also contributed to the problem. In fact, the Metro design included just about every possible flaw that could have been created, with the result being the embarrassing record crash rate.
By the way, we just received an email from the victim of the September 8th Wham-Bam-Tram crash and learned why the Chronicle chose not to report it.
It seems that the accident report showed that the Wham-Bam-Tram ran the light.
But wait a moment! Metro told us that wasn't possible! They said that the lights are supposed to turn red in all directions, 15 seconds before the tram gets to the intersection. You don't think that it might just be possible that Metro lied to us, do you?... Naaaah. Not a chance. ;-)
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