Tonight from Muni’s video vault, we focus on bus crashes. [SEE BUS CRASH VIDEOS AT FOLLOWING ABC7 SITE]

http://iteamblog.abc7news.com/2008/02/san-francisco-b.html

Statistics from the Federal Transit Association show that Muni had more than twice the rate of motor bus injury accidents in 2006 compared to agencies of similar size in Denver, Portland and Orange County, and more than three times that of Dallas. Preliminary numbers for 2007 show an improvement, but Muni still ranks worse than Portland, Orange County and Dallas. Denver appears to have overtaken Muni for bus collision injuries.

This story highlights what happened to Stephanie Schempp in April of 2006. The surveillance video shows a bus driving downhill on the wrong side of the street trying to pass Schempp, who was trying to make a left turn. The bus slams into her SUV, and sends passengers on the bus flying. You can watch three angles of the crash from surveillance cameras here. If you’ve seen our recent reports, you know that ABC 7 spent thousands of dollars fighting Muni in court for access to the bus surveillance videos and other public records. A judge ruled in our favor, and we’re continuing our investigation based on those videos and related documents. It’s been more than a year since we decided to try and quantify the problems at Muni, by looking at the twenty-five bus drivers who receive the most complaints from passengers.

We also tracked down the dollar amount of settlements Muni paid out in the past few years, due to accidents involving its buses, street cars, cable cars, and light rail – almost $7 million in 2005, about $5 million in 2006 and 2007. They denied the claim for the passenger in Stephanie Schempp’s crash, who tumbled from the rear of the bus to the front, striking her head.

Muni might be paying big after an incident we reported ten days ago involving a woman in a wheelchair. Attorney Mark Geragos saw our investigation and contacted Florence Hough – even visited her in San Francisco – and they're now planning a federal Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit.

Posted on February 11, 2008