Do wrecks involving Muni vehicles come in twos? Of course, not, don't be silly. But that doesn't mean that we can't marvel at the coincidence of two big Muni collisions that took place within five minutes on Tuesday night — especially since Muni had a very similar confluence of events two months ago.
Yesterday's first Muni crash happened at 5:29 p.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. and Music Concourse drives in Golden Gate Park. According to SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose, a 44-O'Shaughnessy Muni bus and a tour bus collided at that intersection. Rose tells the Chron that the transit agency still doesn't know the exact circumstances of the crash, or which driver was at fault.
According to Bay City News, the Muni driver was taken to a hospital complaining of back pain, but no one else was injured.
Then at 5:34, a car made a left turn in front of a northbound T-Third train at Mission Bay Boulevard and Third Street, near China Basin.
As you can see in the photo above, a driver in the position to cross in front of a northbound T would have a left turn arrow indicator at that intersection. It's currently unclear if the driver was properly observing that signal when the Muni Metro vehicle struck the car, injuring three. All those injured were transported to San Francisco General Hospital, but the severity of their injuries remains unknown at publication time.
As mentioned in this reports's first paragraph, Muni had a similar, albeit far more serious, grouping of accidents like this one two months ago, on August 1, 2014. On that day, an outbound 38-Geary Muni bus slammed into a dump truck after swerving, ironically enough, to avoid slamming into another dump truck that had suddenly stopped near Geary Boulevard and Buchanan Street, close to Japantown. 20 people were injured in the wreck, and 12 were taken to the hospital for further treatment.
Then, at about 1:36 p.m. on the same day, a big rig made an illegal left turn in front of the T-Third at Third Street and Innes Avenue in the Bayview. In that case, the 18-wheeler and the T were both headed north on Third when the truck turned left in front of the train, causing it to derail. 20 people were injured in that wreck.