BART Construction Worker Injured In Train Accident

A BART construction worker was injured Thursday afternoon when at BART train struck the cherry-picker basket he was working from at the building site for the new Dublin/West Pleasanton station.

According to BART spokeman Jim Allen, the contract construction worker was elevated above the tracks in the basket at the construction site of the new station when train traveling from the Dublin/Pleasanton station towards Castro Valley struck the basket.

Emergency crews transported the worker to Eden Medical Center with significant injuries.

The train, previously reported to be traveling as 35 mph, was moving at about 50 mph, BART spokesman Jim Allison said.

The accident happened at around 2:45 p.m. Officials initially evacuated the 75 passengers from the train. The train was then split in half, with one half taking the passengers to the Dublin/Pleasanton station, according to Allison. The half of the train that hit the contract worker was towed to the Hayward station where it will be inspected

The accident caused significant delays to service on Dublin/Pleasanton line in both directions after traffic between Castro Valley and Dublin/Pleasanton was halted for two hours. BART initially set up a bus bridge around the stoppage, but train traffic has since resumed through the area of the accident.