Family of woman pushed to death off BART platform alleges agency is 'complete failure' in terms of safety

Corazon Dandan was fatally pushed in front of a BART train. Photo: family
SAN FRANCISCO - The family of a telephone operator killed after she was pushed into an oncoming BART train in San Francisco filed a wrongful death suit alleging the transit agency "enables horrific crimes" to occur on platforms and trains and that BART is a "complete failure" when it comes to taking action for safety.
The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court of Northern California, was filed by the nephew and six siblings of Corazon Dandan, 74, of Daly City who died on July 1, 2024, after being pushed into an oncoming train at the Powell Street station. The suit alleges that the man who allegedly pushed her, Trevor Belmont, had been banned by BART for repeatedly jumping the pay gate.
Belmont, who also goes by Hoak Taing, was charged with murder and the special circumstance of lying in wait by the San Francisco District Attorney. He had been arrested on the platform shortly after the attack. No motive was given for what he did. But he had been arrested 27 times throughout the Bay Area over two decades.
One of those arrests included a prior conviction for engaging in lewd contact at the Lake Merritt station, and he was ordered by a judge to stay away from all BART stations for three years, the suit states.
Dandan was on her way home from the night shift as a telephone operator at the Hilton's Park 55 Hotel in Union Square, when she was shoved so hard that her head struck an oncoming train and she fell backwards on the platform. She died at the hospital.
"Something's got to change," her nephew, Dr. Alvin Dandan, said at a news conference on Wednesday. "I wish that my aunt's death not be in vain. I wish that we can rebuild this city to what it once was."

Corazon Dandan was fatally pushed in front of a BART train. Photo: family
The family is being represented by the Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy firm in Burlingame. Other than her nephew, the other plaintiffs include siblings Reynaldo, Renato, Ricardo, and Nicanor Dandan and Carmetlia Esguerra.
KTVU reached out to BART on Wednesday, but did not immediately hear back.
Despite the agency's assertions to make BART safer, the lawsuit alleges that none of these measures have taken place.
"These failures in safety are a longstanding issue," the lawsuit states. "BART has repeatedly failed to make its stations safe for its riders, whether through increased safety staffing or physical security features."
The suit goes on to say that BART's "lack of safety" is especially concerning for members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, who are "disproportionately targeted on public transit."
The suit also points to 2016, when it was revealed that BART uses fake and decoy cameras and 2019 statistics showing violent crime rates were up.
In the case of Dandan specifically, the suit emphasizes that her death "does not constitute an unforeseeable accident but rather is a direct result of the violence that BART has ignored and enabled throughout their stations through its negligent conduct."
Alvin Dandan used the news conference as an opportunity to tell others about his aunt, who came to the United States from the Philippines by herself.
She was a telephone operator in her homeland for the Westin group of hotels and was able to land the same kind of job in San Francisco at the St. Francis and later at Parc 55.
She often offered her house up to visitors for free and everyone in the hotel where she worked knew her because she would "cook a boatload of food for dinner" and bring it to those working on the night shift with her, Alvin Dandan said.
"She had a lot to live for," he said. "And a lot of kindness that she would give but that was taken way too soon."