The fourth accident on the Orange Line in five weeks left three bus passengers with moderate injuries Thursday, but that hasn't stopped transit officials from considering reductions in some of the safety measures imposed after the previous crashes.
Despite the accident, officials at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority said they believed the busway was safe and blamed all four accidents on motorists. In the Thursday morning crash, the driver of a pickup truck ran a red light and hit the bus, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Before that, the MTA was considering increasing the speed limits for buses traveling through intersections by 15 mph. After a previous accident left 14 people injured, the MTA reduced the speed from roughly 25 mph to 10 mph. MTA Chief Executive Roger Snoble said Thursday he would still like to increase speeds back to 25 mph to improve travel times on the Orange Line, which runs between Woodland Hills and North Hollywood. A final decision has not been made.
Another safety measure taken after the third Orange Line accident has already disappeared: the traffic officers who were placed at key intersections along the route to help direct traffic. They were pulled by city officials.
Snoble and others point to other safety measures the MTA is trying, including attaching strobe lights to buses to increase their visibility and lowering safety signs to motorists' eye level.
Officials also downplayed the accidents, saying there is little they can do to prevent drivers from running red lights and driving dangerously.
"People run red lights all over town, unfortunately, every day," said MTA board member and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "If somebody runs a red light, it's their fault. It's not the MTA's fault. It's not the Orange Line's fault. It's not the bus driver's fault."
Critics said the MTA must do more to make the busway safer. Community activist John Walsh called on the MTA to shut down what he called the "Black and Blue Line" for 72 hours to perform a full safety review.
Walsh said he's concerned that the gray buses are difficult to see, especially because they seem to blend into the busway's sound wall.
MTA officials disagree, noting that one of the four accidents involved a bright red bus that was on loan from the Metro Rapid program.
The pickup in Thursday's accident was traveling southbound on Kester Avenue when it hit the bus, which was moving west at about 10 mph, said MTA spokesman Dave Sotero.
