Muni Accidents in San Francisco Know Your Rights
Feb 13th, 2009 by admin
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (the Muni) is a complex system of buses, electric trolleys, cable cars, streetcars, and light rail vehicles (LRVs) that carry tens of thousands of Bay Area residents, visitors, and tourists around the City each day, whether it be to get to work or go home, to go shopping, to visit Fisherman’s Wharf, to go to a ball game, or any of dozens of other reasons. Unfortunately, nearly ten people are injured every day in an accident involving a Muni vehicle, either while riding as a passenger or as a third party being struck by a carelessly operated Muni vehicle.
Muni accidents happen for a variety of reasons. For instance, perhaps a Muni vehicle is following another vehicle too closely and crashes into the other vehicle when it suddenly stops. Of course, as far as passengers are concerned, it is not necessary for the Muni vehicle they are riding to actually crash into the other vehicle. If the Muni vehicle was able to avoid crashing into the vehicle ahead of it, the Muni may still be legally responsible (“liable”) for injuries to its passenger who may fall or otherwise be injured due to the sudden stop.
Some other common causes of Muni accidents are sudden acceleration, colliding with another vehicle when merging with traffic after making a stop, turning too suddenly or too quickly, improper maintenance of the vehicle (such as worn-out brakes that don’t stop the Muni vehicle in time to avoid an accident), carelessness or recklessness of the driver or operator, inattention of the driver, wire derailment, or equipment failure. The Muni can be held responsible to its passengers and third parties when the accident is due to carelessness (“negligence”) on its part. The Muni has an obligation both to its passengers and non-passengers alike to hire qualified drivers, operators, and other employees and see to it that only qualified persons are hired and that they are properly trained to do their job.
The degree of safety (the “standard of care”) owed by the Muni to its passengers is different than the degree of safety it owes to third parties (such as other vehicles and pedestrians). As to its passengers, a Muni vehicle is considered by the law to be a “common carrier,” because it offers its services to the general public and is bound to accept passengers who “tender the price of carriage.”
Common carriers such as the Muni are responsible for their passengers’ injuries or death resulting from even the slightest degree of carelessness (“negligence”) and are required to do all that human care, vigilance, and foresight that they can reasonably do under the circumstances to protect its passengers from being hurt or killed. This is a higher degree of safety and care than that which is owed to non-passengers. As to pedestrians, other vehicles, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and others not on the Muni vehicle, the Muni operator owes them only the ordinary standard of care to operate the vehicle safely and not subject others to an unreasonable risk of harm.
A person who is in the process of getting on or off a Muni vehicle is considered a passenger and therefore owed the highest degree of safety even though the person may not be physically on the Muni. A person becomes a passenger when he or she demonstrates an intent to board the Muni and the Muni stops to receive him or her. From that point on, the Muni, as a common carrier, is required to use the utmost care and diligence for the safety of the passenger.
Suppose a Muni bus pulls away from the curb while a person is trying to get on, resulting in the person’s falling into the street and being run over by the back wheels of the bus. The Muni can be held legally responsible (“liable”) for the injuries to or death of the person—who is legally considered to be a passenger—for failing to use the highest duty of care for the safety of the passenger trying to board the bus, even though he or she was not completely inside the bus and had not paid the fare at the time of the injury or death.
A person is considered a passenger until he or she has safely gotten off the Muni vehicle in a relatively safe place. The Muni operator’s responsibility to the passenger continues until the passenger has had sufficient time to get away from the vehicle without injury. The Muni is legally responsible for any and all injuries a passenger suffers if, for instance, a Muni bus starts pulling away at a stop while the passenger is still in the process of getting off the bus, and is injured when he or she falls when the bus starts moving again. The Muni is not necessarily required to let the passengers off at the curb, but the Muni driver must let the passengers off in a safe place where there is no danger of their being hit by passing vehicles or being injured by a dangerous condition of the street.
The Muni must provide safe and convenient means of access to and departure from its buses, and is liable for injuries resulting from even the slightest negligence in failing to inspect and keep the means of access and departure safe and clean.
Being a common carrier, the Muni has a duty to use the utmost care and diligence to protect its passengers from assaults by other passengers. The Muni can be held legally responsible for injuries resulting from an assault by another passenger when the Muni operator knew or should have known that an assault on a passenger may be about to occur, and had the ability to prevent the injury. This does not require that the Muni provide an armed security guard on every Muni vehicle. Rather, there are a number of precautionary measures the Muni operator could take which would impose little, if any, burden on the Muni operator. Some of the actions that could be taken include the Muni operator’s warnings to unruly passengers to quiet down or get off the vehicle, the Muni operator’s calling the police and asking for their assistance, or ejecting the unruly passengers.
A special relationship exists between the Muni and its passengers that imposes a heightened duty on the Muni and its operators to safeguard its passengers. As the California Supreme Court has stated in relation to buses: “Bus passengers are sealed in a moving steel cocoon. Large numbers of strangers are forced into very close physical contact with one another under conditions that are crowded, noisy, and overheated. At the same time, the means of entering and exiting the bus are limited and under the exclusive control of the bus driver. Thus, passengers have no control over who is admitted on the bus and, if trouble arises, are wholly dependent upon the bus driver to summon help or provide a means of escape. These characteristics of buses are, at the very least, conducive to outbreaks of violence between passengers and at the same time significantly limit the means by which passengers can protect themselves from assaults by fellow passengers. We believe these characteristics of public transportation, along with the duty of utmost care and diligence imposed by California law, provide a more than ample basis for finding that a special relationship exists between buses and their passengers.”
As a common carrier, the Muni has a duty to its passengers to investigate an accident caused by a third party for the purpose of facilitating a claim by the passenger against the third party wrongdoer. For instance, when a Muni rider is injured when a vehicle rear-ends the Muni vehicle, the operator or other Muni bus employee must obtain information regarding the identity of the negligent driver and the motor vehicle he or she was driving. The failure of the Muni employee to obtain such information, resulting in the injured passenger’s inability to pursue a claim against the negligent driver, can make the Muni directly liable to the injured person, even though the accident was not its fault.
If you have been injured while a passenger on or getting on or off a Muni vehicle, or were struck by a Muni vehicle, sometimes the injuries will be obvious, such as a broken arm, head injury, loss of a limb, or a death. However, it is not at all unusual for serious injuries to take a few days to a few weeks to show up. This applies to both physical and mental (or emotional) injuries.
If you have been injured or a loved one killed in an accident involving a Muni vehicle, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. Because the Muni is owned by the City and County of San Francisco, it is generally necessary to file a claim for damages with the proper governmental agency within six months of the date of the incident. An experienced personal injury attorney will know how and where to file this claim on your behalf to preserve your legal rights.
It is also important to contact an experienced personal injury as soon as possible after the accident, as the attorney may want to send his or her investigator to the scene of the accident to inspect and take pictures of the accident site and any dangerous condition that caused of contributed to the accident. The attorney or his or her investigator will also want to talk to any witnesses to the accident while the facts are still fresh in their minds.
An experienced personal injury attorney can also help with seeing to it that you receive a thorough physical and mental examination and treatment for any injuries you suffered as a result of the accident. An experienced personal injury law firm can work to obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, and all of your other injuries and damages you are legally entitled to.
[...] this morning, in the Marina, a Muni bus crashed into a car injuring three. The crash occurred near the intersection of Lombard and [...]