SEPTA Accidents (Philadelphia, Lansdowne, Darby: house, maintenance, storage)

[selhars]

Could come down to staffing, scheduling, training.

Truly negligent drivers?....we just have to wait and see.

[MarketStEl]

Sounds like the most recent one was something of a freak accident — a trolley car in the storage yard started rolling while it was being worked on by a maintenance worker.

Wait. The house the car hit is at Woodland Avenue and Island Road. The storage yard is at 73d and Elmwood. Something else must have happened — but the maintenance worker was the only person on board, according to the news reports.

[selhars]

I know that area very well.
The trolley has to make a full turn to leave the barn and even head down Island Avenue.

I guess it was rolling so slowly it could make that first turn and not jump the track. But once down Island Avenue the trolley needed to make a second full turn to stay on the track. At that corner the trolley needs to turn left or right -- it cannot go straight through the intersection. Apparently by that time it had picked up speed and couldn't stay in the track -- not at the 40! mph quoted below.

And even if a maintenance worker was on board, depending on what kind of maintenance worker it was, he might not have known how to stop the trolley.

I have no doubt there could be a lapse in training, where if the trolley is always in the yard when the staffer is doing his job, he's never been trained to actually drive or STOP a moving trolley. Sarcastically: Why would a member of the cleaning crew need to know that?

SOMETHING triggered that trolley to start rolling. Did the worker accidentally do/hit/engage something? Then once it started it's:"Oh crap. I don't know how to stop this thing!" After all I just fix them I never drive them.

I guess trolleys don't have a dead man pedal (or switch) where if a driver's foot/hand comes off the trolley stops.

One article said there've been eight SEPTA-on-SEPTA bus/trolley crashes this year.
Three till last week, but now 5 in a week.

Friday, July 21
Two SEPTA buses crashed into one another on Roosevelt Boulevard when a Route 14 bus hit the back of a Route 1 bus. More than a dozen people injured, 1 killed.

Sunday, July 23
A bus reportedly hit an electrical pole in Fishtown at Frankford and West Girard avenues. Non-life-threatening injuries to four people.

Monday, July 24
Two trolleys collided just outside of Philly, in Upper Darby, Delaware County. The Route 101 and Route 102 suburban lines were near Lansdowne Avenue and Garrett Road when one rear-ended the other. Five passengers hospitalized, non-life-threatening injuries.

Tuesday, July 25
A Route 31 bus jumped the curb at 15th and Walnut, crashing into a building. Driver only one on board. Only driver injured.

Thursday, July 27
Out-of-service trolley crashed into a historic house in Southwest Philadelphia, reportedly going about 40 to 50 miles per hour. It hit an occupied SUV before hitting the house.

-------
-- Are these new drivers? Experienced drivers?
-- With vacation season are the drivers on duty being over-worked and pushed to do too many hours?
-- How many of these incidents are due to down right negligence? Like being on a phone?
-- What's the caliber of the drivers being hired these days? It's no secret all kinds of employers are complaining about not having "cream of the crop" applicants to choose from.

[MarketStEl]

The video of the trolley striking the house shows it barrelling down Woodland Avenue and striking the house right at its front door, which faces Island Road. it clearly jumped the switches in the Woodland Avenue/Island Road intersection.

Which makes me wonder where it really was when this series of unfortunate events started. For, as you point out, for it to make it from the storage yard at 73d and Elmwood, it would have had to make a right turn out of the yard, then a right onto Island, to get to that house.

[cpomp]

Tuesday, July 25
A Route 31 bus jumped the curb at 15th and Walnut, crashing into a building. Driver only one on board. Only driver injured.

Since the bus was empty, this instance sounds like maybe the driver fell asleep or was distracted and driving at a rather high rate of speed?

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

The video of the trolley striking the house shows it barrelling down Woodland Avenue and striking the house right at its front door, which faces Island Road. it clearly jumped the switches in the Woodland Avenue/Island Road intersection.

Which makes me wonder where it really was when this series of unfortunate events started. For, as you point out, for it to make it from the storage yard at 73d and Elmwood, it would have had to make a right turn out of the yard, then a right onto Island, to get to that house.

Following myself up to ponder this:

The heavy maintenance facility for SEPTA's trolleys is located at 50th and Woodland.

Is it possible that this trolley managed to roll out of there and run for 20 blocks before hitting the house? If, as reports state, it was doing 40 when it crashed, this seems to me entirely plausible.

[selhars]

^^ Come on, now. No. Just no.

....for a trolley to get from 50th and Woodland?.....there'd be a trail of near misses, and maybe cars hitting other things to miss -- or be missed by -- the trolley.

I think we'd have heard by now if the trolley was rolling and going through intersections -- at 20-30-40 mph and no doubt (IMO) running at least a couple of red lights -- not stopping -- leaving cars swerving to avoid intersection crashes along the way.

I don't see how the trolley made the turn to get out of the barn and down Island Avenue in the first place -- clearly it was moving soooo slowly it stayed in the track -- BUT depending on how the track switch is set -- that turn can take people UP Island toward Woodland...OR...down Island toward Lindbergh....because Elmwood and the barn are on higher ground either direction takes the trolley downhill to pick up speed.

....UNLESS, UNLESS.....the trolley was out of the barn and pulled on the street track for maintenance so it was already on Island sitting when it started to roll.

[BPP1999]

I have several times pondered if it’s sabatoge from within, to make the public turn anti-SEPTA (or more so) in an attempt to squash any chance of the Roosevelt Boulevard extension, given how generally anti-expansion the agency tends to be.

(I realize how “tin foil hat conspiracy theorist” that sounds, but as an organization they are damn good at making decisions that result in the prevention of significant expansion).

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by selhars

^^ Come on, now. No. Just no.

....for a trolley to get from 50th and Woodland?.....there'd be a trail of near misses, and maybe cars hitting other things to miss -- or be missed by -- the trolley.

I think we'd have heard by now if the trolley was rolling and going through intersections -- at 20-30-40 mph and no doubt (IMO) running at least a couple of red lights -- not stopping -- leaving cars swerving to avoid intersection crashes along the way.

I don't see how the trolley made the turn to get out of the barn and down Island Avenue in the first place -- clearly it was moving soooo slowly it stayed in the track -- BUT depending on how the track switch is set -- that turn can take people UP Island toward Woodland...OR...down Island toward Lindbergh....because Elmwood and the barn are on higher ground either direction takes the trolley downhill to pick up speed.

....UNLESS, UNLESS.....the trolley was out of the barn and pulled on the street track for maintenance so it was already on Island sitting when it started to roll.

The hitch is, if you look at the video of the trolley striking the house, it's clearly coming full tilt down Woodland. (The historic house sits at the SW corner of Woodland Avenue, Island Road and Cobbs Creek Parkway, which enters the intersection from the north.)

So maybe not a 20-block running start, but certainly a long enough straight shot to hit 40 by the time it crosses Island Road.

[Sammy215267]

Story I heard from someone who knows someone on the inside was that....the car was being worked on and no one had left a tag / note stating that the car had no breaks. So the person working on the car had no idea the breaks was taken out of the car.