BART acknowledged that the massive delays Friday in downtown Oakland were due to a person being struck on the railroad tracks. It was later confirmed a motorcyclist was involved in a crash and then fell onto the tracks — before being hit by an oncoming train.
In a series of tweets from BART, the rapid transit agency confirmed that Friday's fatal crash involved a motorcyclist, who was struck and killed after falling onto the track by a traveling train. The crash caused major service delays for the Bay Area rapid transit system, and spurred some speculation as to what exactly happened — and that ambiguity was cleared up by BART in devastating detail last night.
As reported earlier, BART was impacted by a horrific fatal incident that caused a tremendous disruption to service for many hours.
— BART (@SFBART) September 17, 2022
We are now in the process of restoring full service as the coroner has finished their work.
This is what we know.
"A person riding on a motorcycle on the city streets of Oakland crashed and was ejected due to the force of the impact and landed on our tracks [—] which were below the street where the crash occurred," reads one of the tweets in the thread. "A train was approaching just then and hit the person."
This trauma is felt by many. Our hearts go out to the family of this person, our train operator, the people on board the train, the staff responding to the incident, the staff that have to deliver service while a major section of track is blocked and countless others.
— BART (@SFBART) September 17, 2022
The event is undeniably traumatic and has shaken riders and employees of the transit agency: "This trauma is felt by many."
"Our hearts go out to the family of this person, our train operator, the people on board the train, the staff responding to the incident, the staff that has to deliver service while a major section of track is blocked, and countless others," BART adds in the following tweet.
The crash was reported shortly before 4 p.m. Friday in Oakland; authorities note that the motorcyclist lost control of the bike and struck a metal fence; the impact created an opening in the barrier and the person fell 25 feet onto the railroad tracks below, according to the Chronicle.
It was then that a train traveling along that part of the track struck the motorcyclist soon after and killed them.
According to KTVU, by 6:20 p.m., single tracking was put in motion in downtown Oakland for all directions after limited service was restored. BART reported they were in the process of restoring full service, which was restored after the coroner had finished their work just before 10 p.m. Friday.
The comms team was given basic initial info- someone was on our track and service has been halted.
— BART (@SFBART) September 17, 2022
We shared the info and some took to twitter declaring the person was a junkie on our tracks and it is BART’s fault.
We hope you all have since deleted your tweets.
BART was also quick to dispel false allegations yesterday around the accident with people on social media citing that it was a "junkie" who had fallen onto the tracks.
"We shared the info and some took to Twitter declaring the person was a junkie on our tracks and it is BART’s fault," reads another tweet. "We hope you all have since deleted your tweets."
BART reminded its 332K Twitter followers that the agency offers trauma support to staff after incidents like this and that BART is "grateful for our union partners who help us respond and make sure employees are taken care of."
We are open to feedback and service is being fully restored as we type this.
— BART (@SFBART) September 17, 2022
Thank you for riding and being compassionate to the person who tragically lost their life.
"Thank you for riding and being compassionate to the person who tragically lost their life," BART concluded in a final tweet.
The Oakland Police Department confirmed Friday they are leading the investigation of a "vehicle accident."
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