The director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on Wednesday addressed a troubling incident in which video footage appeared to show an operator asleep at the switch of a Muni train.
The agency said it’s taking several steps to help reassure the public that its trains and operators are safe.
Onboard video of the Sept. 24 incident, released this week, shows a downtown-bound Muni train passing through the Sunset Tunnel on its approach to the Duboce Park stop. As the train hits 50 mph, the operator seems to be shaken awake and the passengers are tossed around. The train races by the Duboce Park stop, narrowly missing a car, before finally coming to a stop.
There were no serious injuries. The operator was immediately put on non-driving status and remains on that status.
SFMTA Director of Transportation Julie Kirschbaum reiterated Wednesday that the transit agency’s investigation concluded that operator error due to fatigue was to blame for the incident. Kirschbaum also clarified some questions about the operator’s hours.
“This operator had driven 58 hours in the preceding two weeks and did not have any unexpected work rules,” Kirschbaum said.
Investigators also found that there was no malfunction of the train’s breaking system or other systems.
In addition to re-training operators to look out for fatigue, the SFMTA is also looking into new technology for its trains to limit speeds. Speed governors on trains would limit them to 25 mph on surface streets.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman said he believes the incident was a problem with one operator.
“It’s hard to be a bus or train driver in San Francisco,” he said. “And the vast majority, overwhelming majority of them are delivering great service to people every single day.”
At the moment, the SFMTA is still facing a budget deficit, but operators and drivers are fully staffed.
Transit advocates said the incident raises concerns if the agency isn’t fully funded.
“If this deficit goes on and we don’t get transit funded, we could be seeing even fewer operators, which could potentially make situations like these even more likely,” said Dylan Fabris with San Francisco Transit Riders.