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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Muni Patron Filming Open Metro Door Considered Pushing Emergency Stop Button - Decided to Film Incident



A lot of you might have watched the video of a Muni metro door that was open while in the subway on your local news or favorite local blog site.

It's shocking to see an open train door while the train is operating at full speed down the subway tunnel. One wrong move and a passenger could have been thrown out the door. Just to make it more amusing, none of the passengers filmed didn't do anything; they just stood there like the door was shut.

But what's so shameful about this is a report from KPIX news. The news reporter interviewed the person filming the video and he said:
"My first thought was somebody push the red button, stop this train, this is dangerous, somebody is going to fall out of here..."

On the next paragraph, the KPIX reporter said:
"Merenkov did not hit the button himself because he wanted to document the dangerous situation."

EXCUSE ME? Did I just read that correctly? In the interest of "news" the guy just films a dangerous situation like that and contemplated taking action by not taking action? What would have happened if a passenger fell off the train and got killed or seriously injured? That would be something that would haunt the recorder for the rest of his life because he had the chance to prevent it.

The guy filming it should have made the decision to activate the emergency stop button or inform a person nearby to press it immediately.

This is terrible, and a total disgrace. People ignore the problem, and the person filming it could have taken action to stop the incident from happening, but instead, films the damn thing?

Is there an "idiot of the month" award? I'd like to hand it to that guy.

--------------------

Just to refresh everyone's memory, I wrote a blog entry mentioning about an incident on Muni metro where a man fell face first on the train and was bleeding all over the floor. When the train stopped at the next stop, I got the driver's attention and he called the paramedics to check on him, and had to put the car out of service because of the pool of blood on the floor.

What I didn't tell you is the other passengers who helped the guy who had the gash on his eyebrow said not to inform the driver. I first said to them, I need to get the driver's attention because of the blood on the floor and the risk of pathogens, but the two passengers helping him said NO.

What the hell is wrong with people these days? Blood on the floor is a serious health risk; just like the open door incident, that's also a major risk to the public. People who see incidents like this should inform officials immediately and not wait around or get some major public exposure by filming the problem.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think most Muni Subway patrons are so conditioned to the possibility of delays and Muni subway meltdowns that they dont want to chance a broken train. See how many people pack on a train when the next one is 2 minutes away since people worry is that train really coming in 2 minutes?

Anonymous said...

Pushing the red button doesn't do anything except it connects you to the operator which would still cause a delay as it depends on how long the operator takes to answer and then figure out what you're talking about. The only way to stop the train is to pull the red handle above or on the side of the door as that will immediately stop the train. There had been issues in the past where the train all of a sudden goes out of service and fails to open the doors at the next stop and pressing the button got no response after 2 minutes while pulling the knob immediately stopped the train and opened the doors where everyone could exit.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the operator knew of the issue before the train even moved:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=86405#ixzz1Ii7neHRu

Akit said...

There's an emergency train stop button located near the destination sign.

Anonymous said...

In this situation, would pulling the emergency brake increase the likelihood of someone falling out of the train? The sudden and possibly unexpected deceleration may have caused people close to the door to lose their balance and fall out. I know that when the trains change speed unexpectedly in the tunnel, it can send people tumbling.

To be honest, I don't think there is ever a situation where that emergency brake should be pulled by a passenger when the train is moving. The risk of people being injured by losing their balance outweighs anything that can be accomplished by a sudden stop.

In this case, the operator should never have left the station. Given that the train was in motion, the best solution would have been for a psssenger to inform the driver and the driver to announce he would be slowly decelerating the train before doing so.

"on-board surveillance cameras show the operator inspecting the door, which was stuck in the open position, and rather than manually closing it and locking it with a metal pin -- which is standard procedure -- he left the door open, returned to the operating controls and proceeded toward the next station."

Given that the preliminary investigation shows the operator didn't follow procedure when he discovered the open door, I wonder what would have happened if a passenger made him aware of it while the train was moving.

Anonymous said...

Akit, the button does nothing as I mentioned before. There is a red handle that stops the train and opens the doors. I don't remember the specifics but it's either a knob or a handle you have to pull that stops the train and opens the doors. I agree with the other Anonymous poster of April 6, 2011 at 10:00AM though.

Akit said...

Do you even know what button I'm talking about???

I know what the communication button does. I'm talking about the emergency train stop button located up high near the side destination signs on each half of the cars.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your concern Akit, the guy who filmed this looked like he was really get his minute of fame on TV. It's ridiculous...

Also, I heard he was claiming he had a medical condition which prevented him from doing anything. If that was the case, he still should have as you suggested it, tell someone else to stop it.

Anonymous said...

Akit, I'm not talking about the communication button either. You're right that there is a button next to the destination sign but there is also something either next or above the door, both are for emergencies. It's pointless to argue when there are no photos to use for illustrating it. I remember a few years ago, there was a article on sfgate.com about some guy having the door shut on him while he was outside so the door caught his clothes and dragged him in the station and people were basically hitting the button as well as something else, one of the things finally stopped the train before the guy ran into the wall at the end of the station before the tunnel.