5:52 PM: Looks like our tipster was on to something! Bay City News is reporting that. though Muni initially reported that the N Judah hit a pedestrian, that was actually not the case. Their report:
A 62-year-old woman was taken to a hospital this afternoon after she apparently tripped near a San Francisco Municipal Railway N-Judah train, police Lt. Lyn Tomioka said.
The incident occurred shortly after 2 p.m. at Judah Street and Ninth Avenue.
The woman was not hit by the train, Tomioka said. She did not have any visible injuries but was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
The details of how the woman tripped were unclear, but Tomioka said she was not exiting the N-Judah train at the time. The operator told investigators the light rail vehicle did not hit the woman.
“The Muni driver was sure that they did not make contact,” Tomioka said.
The accident disrupted westbound Muni service on the N-Judah line for about an hour.
The incident remains under investigation.
I can’t decide if this counts as a Muni Fail or not — after all, it looks like no one was actually hit, but since when they announced it they said they hit someone, that’s probably what people will remember. What do you think?
3:16 PM: Holland says that as of 3:06, the accident has cleared, and that trains are adopting their usual schedule.
One tipster (I’m not sure if he’d like to be named) says that he heard that “it is apparently unclear if the train actually hit (the pedestrian), from the operator’s accout they stopped because the person had fallen down in the sidewalk.” Which is interesting because this would be the first time, perhaps ever, that Muni accepted responsibility for an incident for which they were not responsible! As always, you’ll know more when we do.
2:57 PM: N Judah Chronicle‘s Greg Dewar has three pictures from the serious backups at the scene (now he has them on his site, so go here instead!) . Bad day for the N Judah, eh?
2:51 PM: According to MTA spokesperson Kristin Holland. an outbound (that’s towards the ocean) N Judah hit a pedestrian at 9th and Judah at 2:39 today. She says the SFFD has transported the victim to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and that shuttle buses are serving N riders between Carl and Hillway and Judah and 19th.
