275 injured in buses in 10 years

Don Williams was the fourth person to be hit and killed by a Metro bus in the last decade.

But according to an analysis of federal traffic data by the Enquirer, he is one of 275 people injured during that period.

The family of Williams – who died Tuesday night in what police said was an impaired state after falling while trying to board a moving bus in Westwood – believes the Metro driver was negligent.

Beverly Kinney’s family believes the same about the driver who struck and killed her in Hyde Park in January. Given his driving history, he should not have been behind the wheel, according to a lawsuit against Metro’s owner, the Southwest Regional Transit Authority.

According to federal data, Metro has a lower accident rate than the bus systems in Columbus and Cleveland, as well as in six other cities where Metro operates on par.

Although the data do not address the question of negligence, they do provide information about which events led to injuries or deaths and who was at fault.

SORTA reports 275 injured in 264 bus accidents

From 2014 through February of this year, SORTA reported 313 “major safety incidents” to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration.

264 of these accidents involved regular metro buses, of which there are currently 307. Of the rest:

• There were 12 accidents in Access buses for people with disabilities, leaving 11 people injured.

• 36 accidents involving six people were on streetcars. SORTA operated what is now the Cincinnati Connector streetcar from its inauguration in September 2016 until the end of 2019, when the city took over operations.

The data shows that 275 people were injured in the 264 bus accidents.

Three of the 275 were killed:

• In this year’s case, police reported that Beverly Kinney was crossing the street when the light was red when she was struck. The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the retired teacher’s family on June 10 is not yet scheduled for trial.

• In January 2016, jeweler Stephen Frank was struck and killed by a Metro bus as he crossed a street in Hyde Park with his daughter Emily Frank. Metro later paid the Franks’ estate $10 million to settle a lawsuit that said the driver who struck the Franks was distracted when he threw his Wendy’s chili cup into a trash can.

• In 2020, police determined that Hamilton County Sheriff Cpl. Adam McMillan was killed in October of that year after he ran a red light in Anderson Township and a bus struck his patrol car.

The death of Williams, who owned a cleaning business and lived in Columbus, is not included in the data.

Injured people receive less attention

The accidents that killed Frank, McMillan, Kinney and Williams made headlines in the greater Cincinnati area.

People injured by buses often receive much less attention because SORTA, like other U.S. bus companies, provides scant information for the federal dataset. This is the case even when the incidents involve multiple people or dramatic events:

• In March 2014, the transit agency reported that four passengers and the driver of another vehicle were injured when “Unit 1 drove from a stop sign into the lane of Unit 2.”

• In May 2015, 15 passengers, a bus driver and the driver of another vehicle were reported to have been injured when a bus traveling through Evanston ran a flashing red light and caused a collision.

• In March 2020, a bus driver, four passengers and three drivers of other vehicles were reported to have been injured when a pile-up occurred due to slow-moving traffic on Interstate 471.

• In 2014, SORTA reported that a passenger was injured when a bus struck a fire hydrant in North Fairmount. In 2023, it was reported that a passenger got glass in his eye when a bus smashed the window of a construction sign in East Price Hill. That same year, it was reported that two bus drivers were attacked by passengers, one in Spring Grove Village, the other in Over-the-Rhine.

The 14 pedestrians injured by Metro buses in the last decade are also anonymized in the federal data.

Pedestrians who died from their injuries — Frank, Kinney and now Williams — have gained notoriety through news coverage. The same is true for pedestrians Emily Frank, who was injured in the 2016 crash that killed her father, and Sally Gaynor, who was struck in a downtown crosswalk in October 2017.

Nine other persons injured by buses are identified only by gender and age group and summarized in this table.

Driver training is “robust,” says Metro

In a six-page response to questions from the Enquirer about the federal data, Metro said it compares well on safety with similarly sized transit agencies serving a population similar to Cincinnati’s.

A statement said:

• Metro reported fewer accidents and injuries from 2014 through February of this year than bus operators in Columbus and Cleveland, as well as in Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Jacksonville.

• During the same period and when compared to the same peer group, Metro ranked first in both the number of miles its bus drivers drove between collisions and the number of injury incidents.

• In 2023, Metro remained #1 in mileage between collisions and injuries compared to competitors.

Metro also noted that it promotes the safety of riders, who traveled 13 million miles last year. “Metro operators regularly participate in comprehensive training,” the statement said.

In Williams’ case, Metro has granted 30-year-old driver Briana Huff paid leave to complete an internal investigation into last week’s accident.

According to a police traffic accident report, Cincinnati police suspect Williams had alcohol and marijuana in his system when the bus driven by Huff struck and killed him. The bus’s right rear wheels rolled over Williams after he fell during the pursuit.

Cincinnati police suspect Williams had alcohol and marijuana in his system when the bus driven by Huff struck and killed him, according to a police traffic accident report.

The database contains over 90,000 entries

The nationwide database for safety and security at major events contains over 90,000 entries from bus and train operators from across the country. The bus data comes from municipal operators with more than 30 vehicles in use.

Here’s how SORTA’s bus incident reports compare to others:

• Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority: 960 major events.

• Central Ohio Transit Authority: 453 incidents.

• Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority: 91 reports.

• Indianapolis Public Transportation Corp.: 771 events.

• Transit Authority of River City in Louisville: 331 reports.

• Lexington Transit Authority: 115 incidents.

This article originally appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer: How many people are injured or killed by Metrobuses?