Metro Transit Reviewing Light Rail Safety Procedures
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Metro Transit is reviewing its light rail safety procedures and equipment, and looking at ways to fully inform the public about the dangers of crossing tracks while the trains are running.
This comes after four people were struck by light rail trains in less than a week. Two of them died of their injuries after being hit by trains on the Green Line in St. Paul and Blue Line in Minneapolis.
Two people who were struck by Blue Line trains in the same area of southeast Minneapolis within hours of each other on Monday are expected to recover.
WCCO talked with light rail commuters early Tuesday morning, and caught one person running over tracks while warning lights, bells and crossing gates were operating.
"Makes me think people are, like, running, trying to catch trains, kind of like what we're seeing right now, this lady running over the tracks," one commuter said.
WCCO's Al Schoch caught up with the woman who was hurrying to catch her ride to downtown Minneapolis.
"I was running late, but I looked," she said. "I couldn't see that the train was very close. So I did take the risk, I will say that, because I have to get to work."
Then she stepped into the train, and it sped away.
All light rail stations on the Green and Blue lines are well-marked with signs urging caution, and riders are told not to wait while standing on wide yellow lines that run right alongside the platforms leading to the train doors.
There are areas of both lines, between stations, that are open tracks with no fences to keep people from crossing them.