In a weird bit of cosmic, um, whatever, as news spread of the allegedly drunk dude driving his SUV into the main Muni tunnel (causing a massive collective headache for all), the service provider hosting all of my blogs also encountered an unexpected problem. This left me with no way to really post, unless I wanted to use (gasp!) Tumblr, and well, like Muni, the problem sorted itself out.
This also caused my email to go out, so I’m only now reading many, many tales of woe thanks to this idiot, one of several over the years who’ve said “hey look Maw! A tunnel! Why I’m going to drives through it despite an array of signs saying not to! Derp!” While these stories provide some amusement, here’s something that’s NOT amusing – unless this bozo gets a DUI charge, whatever penalty he faces is minuscule, and won’t cover the costs Muni incurred cleaning up after his mess. Thus, you have a situation where not only was yesterday’s Big Fail not at all Muni’s fault – now they have to pay the costs, at a time when money isn’t exactly growing on trees.
If anyone at the MTA or the City had a clue, they wouldn’t let this happen. At the very least, Doofus Driver should be forced to pay the MTA the full cost of his dumb-ass driving – lost fares, overtime, and more – at the very least. If we had judges or DAs that fought crime, I’d have them sentence this guy either to a real jail sentence, or better yet, force him to wear a sandwich board saying “Im the jerk that drove his SUV into the Muni Tunnel” at key N Judah stops where he’d have to face the many, many commuters whose morning he f*cked up with his foolishness. This would be an opportunity for N Judah riders to repay him the favor with civil discourse (preferably involving a tomato or rotten fruits & vegetables) as they pass this doofus by.
What would you suggest the punishment be? Come on, San Francsico! We really can’t keep coddling criminals who cause problems and cost us money all the time.
Search NJC Posts
NJC Post Archives
Categories
- Duboce Park Dogs
- Guest Bloggers
- Guides
- Links of Interest
- Local Business Review
- Local History
- MUNI Day To Day
- MUNI/SFMTA
- Museums and Parks
- N Judah News
- News & Politics
- Nightlife on the N
- Reader Mail
- SF Photos
- Site News
- Street Theater
- Tales of Extreme Commuting
- Uncategorized
- Urban Life and Culture
- Very Political Posts
- Videos!
Subscribe to Blog via Email
San Francisco News & Politics
Muni Blogs
Meta
Automatic bollards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Cw0QJU8ro
Make him pay the full cost of the delay, as you suggest. Not in cash – by cleaning up graffiti and trash in San Francisco at the SF minimum wage. He would be welcome to stay in the SF county jail until he is done.
They should “recover” his SUV from the tunnel by cutting it up into tiny bite-size chunks, which they can then deliver to him along with a bill for the cost of the operation.
The City shld give this tunnel event an incident number, then. ask citizens to report how the DUIdriver impacted livelihoods. Did someone get fired as a result of being late? Assign a cost and proceed to penalty.
Not related but –
Arnd 60% of emergency hosp visits are due to alcohol and drug abuse.
The automatic bollards seem like a good idea, but I could imagine someone who wrecks their car, even if intoxicated, could sue the city and win for intentionally making the tunnel unsafe. It might seem highly cynical, but doesn’t seem beyond the realm of reality IMO in this litigious country.