OAKLAND (KRON) — There were multiple incidents reported Tuesday morning of passengers passing out while riding BART.
BART officials tell KRON the weather may have played a role in making some riders lose consciousness
Six medical emergencies were reported on San Francisco-bound BART trains during Tuesday morning’s commute
“Six different trains at six different times,” BART spokesman Jim Allison said.
Allison said the incidents occurred between 7 and 10 o’clock Tuesday morning.”
“Fortunately, they don’t appear to be serious at all,” Allison said. “There were three people who were confirmed either passed out or fainting, and then some other problems.”
The rain played a role in slowing down the trains. You could see some water on the tracks at the West Oakland Station
“We do have what we call a rain profile, and that means that the trains accelerate and decelerate at slower speeds to prevent the wheels from slipping, and so that was creating some delays on the train,” Allison said. “And then, the additional delays…with the medical emergencies just compounded the delays that we had.”
The first medical emergency happened at the MacArthur Station. Five medical emergencies occurred at Embarcadero after passengers made it through the Transbay Tube.”
“We do have very adequate ventilation in the Transbay Tube,” Allison said. “Doesn’t appear that being in the tube itself had anything to do with it.”
However, as far as the ventilation inside of the cars, Allison said the trains were originally built to provide air flow for seated passengers.
There are vents located under seats on board the trains. When the trains are crowded though, they can get rather stuffy, especially for those passengers standing on a slow moving train.
BART officials said so far, they have received no reports of their air conditioning system malfunctioning during Tuesday morning’s commute.