Toy Train Update

As reported by Action America, the folks at Metro have been busier than we realized this year:

Only four days into the year, the Wham-Bam-Tram celebtated World Braille Day by striking a blind pedestrian. The blind victim was taken to Ben Taub Hospital, with head trauma. This marks at least the 124th accident for the Wham-Bam-Tram, since it began operation. (We are awaiting delivery of the final official crash numbers for 2005, which we expect will run that number up.)

Unfortunately, that report from Wednesday afternoon was quickly updated with this piece, quickly upping the count for the new year:

It turns out that the blind man who was hit by the Wham-Bam-Tram yesterday was not the first, but the second of three victims of our pathetic little tram, in the first four days of 2006. The Chronicle is now reporting that the first crash of the New Year occured at about 7:20 pm on January 3, followed by the accident involving the blind man the next day, just before noon and wrapping up the less than 24 hour crash spree with a crash in the Medical Center area at 5:50 pm that afternoon. At this rate, you are probably as likely to get hit by the Wham-Bam-Tram as by a drunk on New Year's Eve.

Of course, at last count, Metro admitted fault in only one of those 126 confirmed accidents. Give us a few more years, and maybe Houston drivers (and pedestrians) will actually be smart enough to start avoiding the thing.