SEPTA's horror week renews questions about safety
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A fleet of SEPTA buses. Photo: Jeff Fusco/Getty Images
SEPTA suffered five crashes in the span of a week, killing one person and injuring dozens more.
Driving the news: That nearly equaled the total number of SEPTA-on-SEPTA crashes in 2022, officials told Billy Penn.
Why it matters: Last week's crashes are renewing questions about public transit safety, but officials say the incidents were "an unfortunate coincidence."
What happened: The most recent crash on July 27 involved an out-of-service trolley that slammed into the historic Blue Bell Inn in Southwest Philadelphia, per Billy Penn.
- A maintenance worker aboard the trolley at the time suffered minor injuries but no one else was hurt, SEPTA COO Scott Sauer told 6ABC.
Catch up quick: The crashes began on July 21, when two SEPTA buses collided on Roosevelt Boulevard, injuring at least 19 and killing 72-year-old Siu Nam Mak.
- Two days later, four people were hurt when a bus struck an electrical pole in Fishtown.
- On July 24, five people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after two trolleys collided in Upper Darby.
- The next day, a SEPTA bus occupied only by the driver jumped the curb at 15th and Walnut Streets and struck a building. Officials haven't said how the driver lost control.
Zoom out: The crashes triggered extra training for SEPTA bus and trolley drivers, per KYW radio.
- The agency's chief safety officer told Billy Penn it already tallied eight crashes involving transit in its fleet this year.
- SEPTA reported a total of 884 vehicular accidents on buses and trolleys in the first half of 2023, per the Inquirer.
What they're saying: The public transit's board told Axios that it was "troubled" by the crashes, which "shake the public's confidence in SEPTA."
- The board said it is committed to publicly sharing and fixing issues identified by the ongoing investigations.
- "We have stressed to executive staff that they need to be transparent," the board said.