The Streetcar Crashed Again Today
photo courtesy of kcl_seattle [flickr]
In the four and a half months since it started running, the Seattle Streetcar has crashed four times. That’s roughly 1 crash per month [times].
The good news is we’ve met our quota for April. The bad news is THE STREETCAR HAS CRASHED FOUR TIMES SINCE IT STARTED RUNNING.
Enumerating:
1. SUV driver ran a red light.
2. Improperly parked pickup truck.
3. Lane change in front of streetcar
4. Ran stop sign.
The streetcar hasn’t crashed 4 times. 4 drivers were IDIOTS and directly caused the accidents.
Evidently, there’s a disproportionately high number of idiots driving near the Streetcar.
It’s not disproportionate at all. According to the FTA, there were 527 light rail/streetcar collisions in 2005. There are 30 light rail systems in the US. That works out to about 18 crashes per year per system; the SLUT is actually safer than the national average.
Croz: Our Streetcar isn’t exactly a "light rail system". There are two different cars that run a silly 1.3 mile long stretch of rail. I would venture to guess that the 30 light rail systems you mention above are quite a bit more expansive and therefore provide more opportunities for accidents to occur.
I stick by my implication in the post that 1 accident per month is a lot.
You are thinking of what the FTA defines as "commuter rail." Light rail is "streetcar," or: "Urban transit which uses predominantly reserved but not always grade-separated rights-of-way. Electrically powered rail vehicles operate alone or in trains."