He said it didn't appear that Voiles tried to go around other traffic. Thacker said some motorists on 9000 South saw the light-rail train approaching and stopped to let it pass. "There are, sadly, a few fatalities each year." "That's because motorists and pedestrians and others around these light-rail vehicles become accustomed to them. "As a general rule, there is a decrease (in light-rail accidents) as the systems have been in operation," confirmed Bruce Frame, a Washington, D.C.,-based spokesman for the FTA. In '97 alone, there were 112 fatalities associated with public bus transportation in America. light-rail lines, including just three in '97. Since '90, there have been 81 fatalities on U.S. For the same year, there were 309 accidents and 1.15 fatalities per 100,000 passengers on the nation's public bus systems. They also show, however, that light-rail systems have many fewer accidents and fatalities per passenger than public bus systems.įor 1997, the last complete year for which data are available from the Federal Transit Administration, there were 86 accidents and 0.29 fatalities per 100,000 passengers on the nation's light-rail lines. Packard said he is particularly concerned about the 9800 South crossing near Jordan High School.įederal statistics indicate accidents and fatalities are par for the course on the nation's light-rail transit lines. "What worries me is, in the winter, when most of the time these things will be crossing (roads) in the dark, people will be sliding through the crossing arms." Those (crossing arms) have all got to be in perfect working order all the time. "For over a decade there's been two trains a day on that rail," Packard said. More accidents at TRAX crossings are inevitable, Packard said, because there will be 142 train crossings on the TRAX line each day when the system opens for daily service Dec. "The national safety record for these (light-rail) systems is that for the first two or three years you have a substantially increased accident rate and then it tapers off." "I think there's going to be a somewhat consistent pattern" of TRAX accidents, predicted Michael Packard, a former safety engineer and light-rail opponent who serves as a citizen appointee on the Sandy City Transportation Committee. In any case, the accident is a harbinger of things to come, according to local light-rail opponents. Thacker said police were exploring whether there was a miscommunication between the train's operator and the work crew. This is all part of the testing period that is going on, testing the signals and the overhead wires, and whether they (the crossing arms) were turned off or malfunctioned we just don't know at this time." "I think they need some time to get this worked out and find out what happened and, if it's UTA-related, make sure it doesn't happen again," Alder said of the internal probe. UTA spokeswoman Coralie Alder said the agency was still investigating the accident Wednesday morning and had not yet released a preliminary report. The train was slowing down to stop at that station. accident happened at 150 East, where the railroad crossing arms had been disabled due to some work being done on the Historic Sandy passenger station just north of 9000 South. The 15-mile system is scheduled to debut Dec. Sandy police and the Utah Transit Authority are investigating the accident, the first involving TRAX and a motor vehicle since UTA began full-scale testing of the TRAX line last month. SANDY - Accidents will happen, particularly when light-rail vehicles meet automobile traffic for the first time.Īnd especially when the crossing arms designed to protect motorists from a moving TRAX train fail to work.The challenge of introducing light-rail mass transit to an auto-dependent metro area unfamiliar with the technology was apparent Tuesday when an 18-year-old woman slammed her car into the front side of a northbound TRAX light-rail vehicle at the 9000 South crossing.Īngela Voiles, 18, was in good condition Wednesday morning and was expected to be released from University Hospital later in the day, hospital spokesman John Dwan said.
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