July 2009: Victims involved in a two train Muni crash at the West Portal Station are attended to by rescue workers in San Francisco. (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO – Federal investigators say the driver of a San Francisco light rail train that crashed and injured dozens of passengers had blacked out just after switching off the controls designed to stop the train automatically.
The National Transportation Safety Board released its final report Thursday on the July 2009 crash in which one Municipal Railway train struck another Muni train stopped in the station.
The crash injured 46 passengers and the operators of both trains.
The report says the moving train's automatic controls stopped it in the tunnel just before it entered the station.
The driver then switched off the controls and began to move the train manually up to the platform before he lost consciousness. The driver told investigators that switching off the controls was normal procedure.
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