Milan tram No. 1811 rear-ended a Subaru at First and Market Streets this noon hour, pushing it into the trolley coach in front and sending three people to the hospital.
Photo by Steve Ferrario.
Muni spokesman Paul Rose told Bay City News said the two occupants of the car were taken to the hospital as a precaution, while a passenger in the streetcar was also hospitalized but walked into the ambulance.
Rose says Muni is investigating the cause of the crash. The F-line was blocked for more than an hour.
Witnesses at the site report those taken to the hospital do not appear to have been badly injured. It also appeared, at first glance, that the damage to No. 1811 was minor, but a full inspection will be needed, as the controls for the car are located right up front.
UPDATE: We have a communication from a woman saying she was the woman on the streetcar who was reported by Bay City News to have walked into the ambulance on her own. She states that she was, in fact, moved into the ambulance in a gurney. In a separate communication, a woman who identified herself as the daughter of the woman taken to the ambulance said her mother spent 15 hours in the hospital and “is very sore with many bruises.” Both women said the family was on vacation when the accident occurred.
While any rear end collision is not a nice thing, it looks fortunate that the Subaru was there. Both streetcar and trackless trolley would have wound up worse without the “cushion”. Isn’t this the third time in recent years that this same type accident has happened on Market Street?
I see that 1811 is back in service today. Those old cars are tough.
There is little though that a transit agency likes to see less than a accident bewteen two Company vehicles. I remember one Company back in the late ’50s whose rule book stated simply, “There is no excuse for a collision between Company vehicles”.