Monorail accident blamed on human error
SEATTLE – Human error caused the Seattle monorail accident because the inbound driver failed to yield to the other train at the point where the tracks are too close together for passing, officials said Wednesday.
“The incident is a sad situation for all concerned, and we are very relieved that no one was seriously injured,” said Stuart Rolfe, a Seattle Monorail Services partner, in a statement. “The inbound driver was an experienced individual who made some very unfortunate and costly errors.”
Seattle police reported Wednesday that drug tests on both drivers by an independent lab showed “illegal substances were not a factor in the accident.”
The monorail’s only two cars sideswiped each other on a curve near the downtown station Saturday evening, and both ground to a halt. Fire crews helped the 84 passengers down from the 28-foot-high tracks. There were no serious injuries.
City officials have been working with tow truck and crane companies to separate the trains and bring them back to the maintenance facility near the Space Needle in the Seattle Center. The trains were separated Monday night. By Wednesday morning, they were about three-fourths of the way to the shop. Officials said the project would take at least one more night.
This is the first time both trains have been out of commission since the monorail was built for the 1962 World’s Fair.
A signal system has prevented similar accidents at the curve, where the tracks are too close together for the two trains to pass freely. The southbound train is supposed to stop and wait for the northbound train to pull out of downtown Westlake station before passing the curve.
Investigators found the accident was not caused by failure of the signal system or the trains themselves. The internal review exonerated the northbound driver.
Monorail officials have said they would not be able to estimate how long it would take to get the monorail running again until the trains were returned to the service facility.
The line was shut down for more than six months last year after a smoky fire stranded about 100 riders. No one was seriously hurt.
Popular with tourists, the monorail carries as many as 23,000 riders a day. A 13-year campaign to expand the system met with sound rejection by voters in November – the first no vote on the issue in five elections over eight years.