American Dream

After a Salt Lake City light-rail train ran a red light and nearly killed a thirteen-year-old girl in an automobile, transit officials admitted the accident was their fault and not the fault of the motorist. While one official claimed it was "operator error," this article in the Salt Lake City Tribune suggests that light-rail trains frequently run red lights because they just can't stop in time when the light changes. This means it is a design flaw, not an operational mistake.

The article suggests that a mere six fatalities plus two suicides is an excellent safety record for Salt Lake light rail. It would be if it were the heavily-used New York City subway. But Salt Lake's light-rail lines have carried only about 300 million passenger miles since they opened in 1999, which means a fatality rate (not counting the suicides) of about 20 per billion passenger miles. That is more than four times greater than buses or urban interstate freeways (which are both between 4 and 5 fatalities per billion passenger miles).

Meanwhile, the Sacramento light rail killed a man on November 28 and hit a 17-year-old boy on a bicycle on December 19. Of course, both of these accidents were blamed on the victims. Another Sacramento light-rail rider recently got beat up by "six thugs" aboard a light-rail train, but of course, that wasn't the light rail's fault either.

Finally, it is worth noting that the Wham-Bam Tram Ram Counter now reports 71 accidents on Houston's light rail. The Ram Counter page now opens with photos of a transit agency policewoman asleep at the wheel of her car. Her job, it turns out, is to ensure than no accidents occur on the light rail. 'Nuff said.