In today’s Move It! column, Rad Sallee reports the latest on a recent Danger Train accident involving an HPD officer:
A Houston Police Department spokesman said no action will be taken against an undercover officer whose city-owned vehicle collided with a MetroRail train May 13, causing minor injuries to two train passengers, the officer and his dog.
The accident occurred at 3:30 p.m. at Main and Alabama in a segment of the tracks where stoplights are programmed to go red in all directions when the train approaches.
The video shows that the train operator had received a vertical white line signal to proceed north through the intersection. It also shows a car coming to a stop on the east side of the track, although it is not clear whether the driver stopped for the light or saw the train itself.
The officer’s car, which is not visible until just before the collision, appears suddenly from the west as the train reaches Alabama. The video does not show what color the stoplight was showing in the direction of the officer.
HPD Capt. Dwayne Ready said bystanders gave conflicting statements, two of them supporting the officer’s account.
“Also, I do not believe the information provided by Metro conclusively ruled out the possibility that the lights may have malfunctioned with regard to what the officer saw,” Ready said.
Although Metro police normally investigate MetroRail collisions, Ready said HPD, which has a division specifically for accident investigations, handles those involving the city’s fleet.
That was smart of HPD not to let Metro have the final say in the investigation’s conclusion since we have several eyewitness accounts of Metro’s short-cycled traffic signal operation that can give drivers little or no time to react to an oncoming train.
Amusingly, the original Chronicle story on the accident includes this quote from Metro’s George Smalley:
Smalley said the preliminary report also indicated that the officer may have run a red light at the intersection.
That would undoubtedly be Metro’s preliminary report.
