Posted on 08/20/2004 10:14:14 AM PDT by Jalapeno
Technically the train started running right before the Super Bowl in very late January.
This driver was from the Dallas area.
The Chronicle only sporadically reports them now for obvious reasons.
Maybe Action America should call Metro as a concerned taxpayer and ask for an audit of the accident reports in their files to make sure he hasn't missed one...
They keep such figures even if they are reluctant to share the information.
Zing! Nice one!
He's apparently filing for them monthly under the Open Records Act.
Excellent observation - I wonder the same thing with, say, Asphalt colored Mini Coopers (two versions: lighter and darker death-trap grey).
Houston is Harris County. Tarrant County, from whence this van hailed, is Fort Worth. The driver is NOT a Houstonian.
Aren't a few of the wrecks from the alleged testing period?
Thursday morning's incident disrupted MetroRail service to UH-Downtown Station for about 30 minutes. Other trains experienced a delay of up to 10 minutes. Passengers waiting at stations were notified of the delays, apparently the first time the electronic sign system has functioned properly in issuing such an alert.
So what does that make it now, 1 in 58 incidents that the signs have worked?
Though to be fair, it is rather ridiculous to see some posters bloviate and completely shift responsibility from all the drivers who have caused each of these wrecks with THEIR illegal turns and ignoring of the traffic laws simply because they want to bash METRO and its rail line. Sure METRO is corrupt and this rail line should not have been built without voter approval, but if a new road had a high accident rate, similarly with all the accidents being caused by illegal turns and drivers ignoring the traffic laws, many of these same people would be defending the road and blaming idiot, reckless drivers.
I have a neighbor who drives a hopped up Mini-Cooper in Death-Trap Grey. The darn thing turns up in the most unlikely places at the most improbable rates of speed. He seems to think that it is small enough that he can run over pedestrians without actually hurting them.
Never since Mitsubishi used to run the "Drive a Mitsubishi Because You're a Jerk" ad campaign have I seen such a disagreeable bunch of drivers associated with one particular make of car...
Only a moron could wreck his vehicle into the train.
I fail to see the problem:
Are the Big Signs that say Look and Listen for train and the diagram of streets and tracks not clear enough?
Do people not understand what a Red Light means?
Do people actually not know what not to do when a train signal is on and the cross bar blocks the tracks from vehicle traffic?
Can people not read the No Left Turn Signs?
Is the Big Yellow Stripe and the Big Bumps that separate the street from tracks not an obvious indicator that one should not drive over the YELLOW LINE and Big Bumps?
Now, if you want to discuss the merits of a light rail system is a sprawling metropolis that is an whole different topic.
But, how people could be so stupid as to get in a crash with the Metro Train, I will never know.
Hey, I know the answer to all of these train wrecks with passing cars...lets paint the urban/metro trains gray and black instead of neon-glow orange!
< /mocking >
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
It is not that we do not know how to drive, we do not know how to drive well. The people in this town drive like they are the bastard children of a kamakazi and a nascar drive with all the survival instincts of a manically depressed lemming. And knowing this, they put the train in the middle of main street, why?
Oh man, great minds...
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
That sadly is just it, there are a lot of morons driving in Houston. With all the signs you have mentioned they do not see it or think they can beat it. Common sence is not all that common now.
And also this is a big boondoggle and money waste to boot.
An innocent victim of blind justice. Falsely convicted for the murder of his wife. Reprieved by fate when a train wreck freed him. Freed him to hide in lonely desperation, to change his identity, to toil at many jobs, freed him to run before the relentless pursuit of the police lieutenant obsessed with his capture. Freed him to search for the one-armed man who left the scene of the crime.
Hey, maybe it will hit Kerry's campaign bus sometime. Or at least Sheila Jackson Lee.
I just wish I had never loaned it to Eaker. He doesn't want to give it up.
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